desaix

Hmph.  With the revelations from 699-700, I'm honestly not sure I want to finish this fic any more.  Oh, I still might, but I need to think about it.  Fanfiction, by its nature, is free promotion of the source material; while I'm not going to drop NaruSaku, I no longer feel like providing free promotion of the Naruto series.

 

It'll take me a while to sort out the headcanon I need to enjoy Naruto any more, regardless.  In the meantime, though, I guess that leaves me more time for my original fiction.  (I promise no crappy last-minute out-of-the-blue pairings in any of my works, original or fanfic; any pairings will either be immediately obvious, or will exist without throwing out all the character development of the prior work in an attempt to, ahem, justify)

 

To think I had an unfinished 27 chapter, 150,000 word part-one rewrite fanfic (new team; since PeanutButter126 seems to have dropped out of fanfiction and Precious People looked like it would never get finished, I started my own version of that style of fic) that I was planning posting, too.  I'm not sure what to do with it, now....  (real answer:  Again, wait until the headcanon can be fixed in my head, then decide)

I dunno what to think.  2014 has ended all of the running manga I was following (Ah! My Goddess, History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi, and very soon Naruto), and I haven't seen anything in any of these line-ups that have sparked my interest significantly in years.  A few mildly entertaining write-ups I might give a try to if convenient, but most of those aren't easy to find in the US, and none have inspired me to hunt them down.

 

Sure, there are still some trickles from those anime out there (the Kenichi OVAs seem to still be happening, even if they aren't on this list, and there's a Naruto movie to dread -- I mean, look forward to), but... is anyone else getting an "end of an era" vibe from this year?  So many long-running series are just ending, and very suddenly\unsatisfactorilly as well.  Even Studio Ghibli may be gone after this year (though I've seen conflicting reports about that).

 

I guess some people are content with Attack on Titan (too grimdark for my blood) or Sword Art Online (jumps around too much; can't get into it).  I never got into One Piece (I gave it a lot of chances), which may still be running, but as suddenly as Naruto and Kenichi were ended (Kenichi basically announced it was ending just one week in advance, with a dozen plot points unresolved) I wouldn't be surprised if any of those were ended with little or no warning, either.

 

I dunno.  Sorry, probably not the right thread for this one, but it bothers me.  I wonder what's going on in the manga industry all of a sudden.

Well, depends what you call a "Disney Pairing."  I mean, Tarzan and Jane were a pairing for Edgar Rice Burroughs long before the Disney movie; I like them as a pairing, but then I liked them as a pairing before the Disney movie came out.  Same goes for John Carter and Dejah Thoris.

 

Of the (more-or-less) original to Disney characters, I like Goliath and Elisa a lot.  Of course, that was developed before Disney decided to take control of one of its top television titles from one of their subsidiary studios, fire all the writing staff, and dumb it down to the point they had to cancel it by the end of the season.  And Carl and Ellie were great in Up... shame she died in the first act, but then honoring her death was the whole plot of the movie.  Kita and Milo from Atlantis, I suppose.  Erm... Wall-E and EVA?  Hm... drawing a blank on who else might be included here, here.

 

Honestly, Dreamworks does the "Disney Couple" thing, too, and did it better on at least three occasions I can think of: Shrek and Fiona (Shrek; honestly, my least favorite of these three, but supposedly the best known), Hiccup and Astrid (How To Train Your Dragon; I like Astrid better than her counterpart in the books (Kamikaze) anyway, and HTTYD is one of those rare examples of the movie being better than the book), and the oft forgotten Sinbad and Marina (Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas; good movie for its type, but woefully under-promoted).

I wonder if anyone else saw the last trailer, today?

 

("take 'em down, babe!"  Yeah, with that definitive of a statement in the trailer, I sure as heck hope they don't revert to a will-they-won't-they storyline.  And Stoic...geez, the emotion in the bloody TRAILER is so palpable, what'll it be like in the theater?)

Some of the things I see mentioned here sound more like pet peeves rather than things that should rank among "most disturbing."  I mean, I was expecting discussions of that one fic I once found on AdultFanfiction.net where Naruto was a demonic slavemaster indulged by the village, with Sakura helping him build a harem of masochistic girls who enjoyed being brutally tortured and whatnot (I forget the title -- something like "Chained by the Whirlpool" or something like that).

In addition to the "biggies" of the resolution of the Madara fight and the Sasuke conflict, there are some narrative hints as to things that have yet to happen before the manga ends.  The "Sakura is a genjutsu-type" proclamation by Kakashi needs to pay off at some point; something (unless Kishi completely forgot this storyline, which I find unlikely) is going on with the five Daimyo in their guarded safehouse; Orochimaru's return to life has to be significant, somehow, and not just because he "rescued" the current-gen kage; etc.

 

Lots of loose threads to tie together, still.  Eastern methods of storytelling don't require that all open threads be tied up (the Naruto-Sakura-Sasuke triangle could end unresolved, potentially), but I think all three I mentioned above need further development, even by Eastern standards.  And there's the war itself to finish.

 

I know some people are getting anxious for the story to end, but I can see why it might take more than a year to finish it all.

 

(I think most of you who are asking for the manga to "end" don't really want it to end, anyway -- you want it to move forward.  It has been moving very slowly)

I guess this thread is staying open, so I'll say this much:

 

When CNN invents a story claiming that Zimmerman used racist language ("kittening Coon") when he did not... (CNN story, Mar 21 2012; retracted April 5, 2012)

 

When NBC edits the 911 audio to make Zimmerman sound racist... (March 27th)

 

When ABC falsely claims Zimmerman was not injured on the night of the shooting, despite photo evidence of gashes on Zimmerman's head and a busted up nose... (retracted FOUR days later, despite being confronted with the photo evidence immediately)

 

When MSNBC contradicts the photos they were showing, themselves, to repeat that claim of no injury in a story a day later...

 

When the New York Times AGAIN alters the transcript of the 911 call (on April 1, 2012, four days after NBC was caught doing the same thing) to make Zimmerman sound racist...

 

When the prosecution attempts to withhold evidence and is caught at it (http://www.cnn.com/2...ring/index.html )...

 

When the judge in the case does this:  http://www.nationalr...itrios-halikias ...

 

I find myself far more likely to believe a conviction of Zimmerman would have been more a travesty of justice than a not guilty verdict.

 

I'm not saying that Zimmerman, on his own merits, deserved to get away with shooting Trayvon Martin.  What I believe is simpler than that:  With the way everything was handled, from the trial in the media to the way the prosecution handled the case to the bizarre handling of the case by the judge, I could not view the possibility of a guilty verdict with anything better than skepticism that he had been allowed a truly fair trial, either before the law or in the court of public opinion.

 

Or, put another way, I am left feeling happier that this case may have allowed a guilty man to go free than I would have felt about a possibly innocent man being railroaded by both yellow journalism and judicial and prosecutorial misconduct.

Anyone want to see Sakura doing a...Golden Byakugou? (If you get the joke, applause to you)

 

Why does that just sound so... ecchi?    

(don't take this post seriously; it's just a silly thought)

 

Maybe Kishimoto is setting up Hinata as the final villain for when her jealous rage over Naruto and Sakura's relationship consumes her....

I have difficulties with pairings in superhero comics in general, thanks to the stupid way DC and Marvel both like to throw bombs and turn everything into a bloody soap opera every time a pairing starts to happen, but in various TV\fanfiction universes....

 

I prefer RobStar, LoisClark (you aren't alone, Derock!), BatmanCatwoman (I didn't particularly have a Batman pairing until a certain fanfic by Kryalla Orchid in her "Masks" universe.  "Mom" damn near evoked tears.  Now I want the pairing just so Richard Grayson still has his momma), WW\Steve Trevor (WHY did he get so horribly treated by canon?  Geez).  I think I've like others, as well, but I can't remember them all -- I may post again if I can think of them.

 

Edit:  Spelling corrected on Kryalla Orchid's name, and because Richard Grayson's nickname gets auto-corrected.

1, 2, and 3 in which order? The order they were written, the chronological order, or what?

Incidently, my favorite was "A Horse and His Boy," which has never been made into a movie or TV, but could be either the third or the fifth (I'm a Shasta-Aravis shipper).