askerian | state of teh asuka

-I wrote some Teamwork yesterday! WOOHOO. So proud.
Now I just have the evilomg ending to figure out and then I can post the first draft and THEN I can sort out that mess I did with the scene structure. XD;

-I also wrote a short restore scene but it turned out to be unnecessary and give the wrong foreshadowing, so it's gonna go byebye. Still, now I have a better idea for the scene so it's not all wasted words. (T^T waugh cutting things ouuut)

-I think my problem with the characters all acting like thoughtless dickwads ist't REALLY a problem with the characters acting like toughtless dickwads -- it's with the authorial intent that makes it feel like a clumsy contrived ways to kick the plot forward. For example, Sai's guilt trip bugged me, not because I thought it was OOC of Sai to defend Naruto's feelings or to be a blunt motherfucker, but because for a moment it vaguely sounded like authorial intent saying "yeah, that shit is cool with me and it doesn't matter how he came across because I needed to break Sakura a little." The fact that Sai saw what he did as a dickish thing and sort of-kinda apoligized makes it okay, because it's a character acting IC and making IC mistakes and that's yay.

Comparatively speaking I didn't truly believe that Sai was speaking for Kishi very long. Maybe a half hour. XD

I still have a problem with Naruto and Kakashi's decision to keep Sakura out of the loop. I understand them not telling Kiba or Lee. I don't understand them not telling SAKURA.

And if one of them doesn't have a thought à la "damn, if only we had told her about what we learned then maybe this wouldn't have happened", if one of them doesn't own up to at least a tiny part of responsibility in Sakura's reaction, then it will be dickish. Unintentionally so, which is a lot worse.

I like characters being dicks and making dumb mistakes. I don't like characters being dicks and making dumb mistakes, and then the authorial intent telling me they're supposed to be perfectly nice, smart guys and not acknowledging the dickhead part was supposed to be negative. I don't even mean acknowledgement to be a "I'm sorry I did this" but even just a "yeah, i did mean it, so what, those are my reasons and I still stand by them". But a "lalala no i don't remember anything i have to question myself for oh look a butterfly" ... rrgh.

It's good for characters to have negative characteristics or accidentally cause trouble or just generally not be perfect. It's realistic. It introduces human conflict. But that the author doesn't even realize how it comes across is just storytelling fail to me and that offends me on a writerly level.

Shut up, writerly is so a word. I'm a ~~fanfic~~ writer. I know these things. u.u

It's somewhat the same species as the difference bewteen a fic promoting how sexyhotwrongdysfunctional itasasu pre-nicetachi reveal would be, and a fic promoting pre-reveal itasasu with evil!itachi and broken!sasuke Stockholm Syndrome incest as something light and fluffy that everyone around them accepts and no one questions or stages an intervention for. It breaks my suspension of disbelief.

Also I really want to see an explanation for Sakura's reasoning with that fake confession and what she thought she was going to accomplish, whether she seriously thought Naruto would accept it or whether she was trying to make him hate her or what. Because raking up team seven angst points, bringing up that Naruto ships SasuSaku and shoving Sakura off to her own little side trip are very nice results, but the point is -- WHAT WAS SHE THINKING THIS WOULD ACCOMPLISH. Right now it just comes off as really clumsy. And for such a smart girl and one who only a few chapters ago was so determined to do the right thing from now on, I just... I've seen a lot of theories, some of which made a lot of sense, I even came up with a few, but fan theories and interpretations aren't going to cut it. I want to see the manga adress it, or else it will be writerly fail again.

Then again it's a good thing I'm not into Naruto for the perfect writing. XD

-

suzukiblu/sunfreak/Rin is an awesome writer. And she draws cute things. She is also my friend, incidentally. She is also unemployed at the moment.
She's offering art commissions so she doesn't spend Christmas out in the snow or have to sell her computer and other personal effects or something bad like that.
If I could use money over teh internets I would. I can't.
So, she's offering commissions, starting at $5 and going up to $25. Seriously it's cheap. If you want artsies from her go here! And if for some strange reason you want to get me a present this year, I'd totally love a Sunfreak pic. Two birds with one stone! So... just saying. Plz halp Rin not to sleep in the snow. She has kitties to feed and I don't think they'd get plump on the remains of her laptop. ;^;

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I want to see the manga adress it

THIS.

Also, there are quite a few other things I would like the manga to address that I think, sadly, have been long forgotten. :(

Aw, like what? :(

The whole Orochimaru thing mostly. Although I guess that's more my dissatisfaction with what happened than lack of information given. :/ Moody reader is moody. lol

♥

yeah, the oro thing was very anticlimatic. he was hyped for so long, and then he disappears and then itachi finished him in one hit, and jiraiya and tsunade didn't show much reaction. boohoo. :/

I thought it was poetic, in a way. And I'm not just saying this because Orochimaru had been a constant thorn in the side of SasuNaru/NaruSasu and Team7 shippers alike (although that part of me was also overjoyed to see all of his spirit permanently removed from Sasuke and sealed away for eternity).

The problem is that Orochimaru was always way too overconfident. He believed too much of his own hype. The fact of the matter was that both Sandaime and Kyuubi-Naruto nearly destroyed him in their respective battles (as evidenced by the state of his "body" shortly thereafter). He was lucky in both encounters that his draw from the karma well came up greater than his opponents. In the case of Sandaime, he was just a little too old at that point. In the case of Naruto, well a certain pink-haired busybody stopped what could have been epic Snake destruction had Naruto been allowed to develop another tail or two. The thing is: Orochimaru greatly underestimated his opponents. He always had. The only reason he stayed ahead of the curve is through tricks and luck. This even included Sasuke, which he assumed he could just take over, but still had a plan B to fall back on just in case.

This theme is very popular in Japanese culture (as well as in our own). Eventually the overconfident character makes one too many trips to the karma well and comes up empty. It is quite satisfying to see the shock and despair in Orochimaru as he realizes that Itachi had not only outsmarted him (by luring him out) but was about to permanently seal his fate. For someone who was such a control-fetishist, it is the ultimate horror to know you have lost all control. In the end, Orochimaru got what he deserved: a quick, anti-climatic battle which he handily lost. Even his plan B escape pod got destroyed by Amaretsu's cleansing flames.

So, I doubt there will be any further canon explanations on this point. What happens with Kabuto is another matter entirely. However, the amount of 気 (ki) one possesses is finite and most of Orochimaru's is forever lost.

What I don't understand is.... The early stuff.... the Zabuza arc, Sasuke's conflict after the chuunin exam, Itachi's carefully concealed motives, the VIBEYNESS... that made me love Naruto.... Where is it? How can this be the same person writing? I always knew Naruto wasn't perfect, that in many ways it was cliched and more than a little trite, but it had some wonderfully redeeming features...

.... but where is that now? It's just.... not the same manga I started reading a coupla years ago. Where are the three dimensional charaters I fell in love with? It's like.... I could swear he only thought up to as far as the end of Akatsuki. And now, he's just floundering. It's just not sparkly. V_V

More Teamwork? Oh, please, tell me what I can do to keep your muse awake?

Writerly is too SO a word *ahem*... OK OK, so it's not in the dictionary. Pooh.

I FOLLOWS THE HOLY ASUKA DICTIONARY OF FICFUL SPLENDIOSITY, DAMMIT! (And I reccommend that everyone else continue to do so too.)

I like characters being dicks and making dumb mistakes. I don't like characters being dicks and making dumb mistakes, and then the authorial intent telling me they're supposed to be perfectly nice, smart guys and not acknowledging the dickhead part was supposed to be negative.

...THIS. So much this. ♥♥♥

It's pretty much the reason I never disliked Sakura at the beginning of part 1. Because she was being an ass, and the text acknowledged that she was being an ass and set out to have her grow. If Kishi'd thought her behaviour was just right I'd have hated her with the force of a thousand suns.

I've heard people defending Naruto and Kakashi's decision by saying that they did it because 'they're still not sure if it's true'. As if that somehow made everything peachy! Seriously, what. What. Because if they'd told Sakura and added that they still weren't sure... she wouldn't have had the mental capacity to comprehend this kind of situation? >_<

Sakura's doing all of this specifically because she cannot think of a single reason Sasuke might be doing what he's doing - if her teammates know something that would clue her in as to this 'why', then they should tell her! The information at their disposal - true or not - rightfully made them pause and revaluate Sasuke's position. It's not RIGHT that Sakura not be given this same chance. >:(

Also I really want to see an explanation for Sakura's reasoning with that fake confession and what she thought she was going to accomplish

This too.

I mean, I can totally buy that she'd believe some of the things Sai told her - hello, guilt and inferiority complex to the max! But some things just - er. No. The fact that she attempted to 'lure' Naruto to Konoha and to convince him to give Sasuke up by bribing him with 'her love' makes me think that she seriously believed Sai when he told her that Naruto was trying to save Sasuke for her - which, er, what? It's totally unbelievable, and she should know this - hell, she's said as much to Sai in the beginning of part 2! Not to mention that lying about your feelings to someone who supposedly loves you is - well, a very dickish move. Even if you were being self-sacrificial. *sigh*

By the way, I'm still in denial about Kisame's totally anticlimatic death. ;_;

~~...his head was still talking! There's a chance he's survived? ;______;~~

I've pretty much accepted that Kishimoto can't write his way out of a paper bag when it comes to his female protagonists so I just shrug when he yet again has Sakura do/say things that don't entirely make too much sense. Personally I feel the whole "guilt tripping Sakura" thing is too forced. I don't really believe she has anything to feel guilty for to be perfectly honest. I've always thought she did everything there was humanly possible to do. Hopefully someone (Sasuke please because I don't think anyone else can make her believe it) will let her know she does help, she does make a difference, and isn't a burden. Just my two cents.

state of teh asuka

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