wingsover

True dat. WHY, oh god WHY, is Naruto - the bright, bouncy, loud, rough-and-tumble, boyish hero that he is - always cast as a slight, delicate, trembling wisp in most yaoi fics? I mean, even when he's a GIRL in the series he's not that bad.

Also, in the thread of hating Mary Sues, I hate it when readers are encouraged to write in and submit character profiles so the author can insert even more characters into Narutoverse.

It's your story, and such an ending is a legitimate plot device. Do what you want. If it fits your story, you ought to do it, and not bend things around for a weaker ending.

Because I hate with the fire of a thousand suns, I return with more ranting.

1) I love Naruto. SO, when I read a fic, I don't want it to have Naruto uber-powered and acting like Sasuke. Naruto is NOT a cold-hearted emotionless super-genius. It's not the overpoweredness I mind, nor the intimation that Naruto may have a mind. I could argue that he's shown time and time again that he is actually intelligent (well-hidden beneath layers of hyperactiveness) and powerful. BUT he is also a happy, cheerful, loud personality. It's more fun to read him acting like himself, and dealing with powers.

2) Naruto's new uber-powers ripped off from other characters/shows. While it's cool to read 'Naruto is really an Uchiha/Hyuuga/related to Haku' if DONE WELL, Naruto just up and developing powers for no reason pisses me off. Give it backstory, AT LEAST.

3) Aside from not liking SasuSaku anyway, I hate the fact that a lot of SasuSaku fics DON'T SEEM TO ACTUALLY INVOLVE SASUKE AND SAKURA. They're replaced with 'people' (if the term applies) who share the same name BUT NONE OF THE DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS. If you're writing a SasuSaku, don't have Sakura and Sasuke squabbling and having a love/hate relationship. SAKURA DOESN'T ACT LIKE THAT AROUND SASUKE. She acts like that around NARUTO, why not just write NaruSaku?

I hate it when everyone turns perfect, especially in coupledom. You know what I mean: Hinata no longer stutters and teases her adoring, yet sensitive husband Naruto. A well-adjusted Sasuke smiles at his confident, self-sufficient wife Sakura. Neji BABYSITS THE KIDS.

No. Just...no.

Also, that goes for the whole get-together scene. With the smallest amount of provocation, and usually massively out-of-character, someone spills the I LUB YOU on their object of affection. They accept. And from that moment on, they are perfect boyfriend and girlfriend, until the wedding. Sensitive, supportive, sweet.

GAG.

Not that I want the soap operas that American television perpetuates, either. We do NOT NEED an orgy of cheating, broken hearts, crying, vengeance sworn and taken, and bastard children of dead parents. No. That is also a peeve of mine.

But couldn't we just keep their personalities - flaws and all - intact? Neji will, in case it ever dawns on him not to live his life alone and bitter, still be cool and uncommunicative. Naruto will be loud and untactful. Sasuke IS A MENTALLY DISTURBED TRAITOR, and will not come back to roses, white picket fences and a fully-healed psyche.

Preach it, sistah. (and/or brotha)

Re: the Mask thing. Agreed that I hate it when Naruto is turned into a Sasuke clone - we already have too many angst-bunnies running around - but I do think that Naruto in canon is hiding much of his real thoughts and feelings. You can't tell me that someone with that kind of background doesn't want sometimes just to be HUGGED. At the very least. And I can so easily imagine a situation where Naruto decides that it's better to pretend to be an idiot.

That said, I HATE Wangst!Secret-Tragedy!Uke!No One Understands Me! Naruto, who is suicidal/emo/cutter and the writers refer to 'his mask' as regularly as clockwork and as if it were a PHYSICAL THING he could put on. I actually read one where Naruto "put on his mask, so no one could see his deep inner pain" and it took me five minutes to figure out the writer hadn't meant he had actually put something on his face.

Oh yes, and I also hate summaries with a "Best _______ you'll ever read. My friends told me so!" as an enticement.

Can I just say that I hate fics with authors who refuse to believe that their work, far from being a new, groundbreaking, brilliant piece of work, is actually a cliched rip-off of all that is wrong with fiction, and refuse to accept concrit and begin ranting about how this is their work and you didn't have to read it and they have like 100 people who say it's fine so obviously their work must be fine. Bah.

I just realized I've described Anne Rice.