TwinEnigma

Well, it's fine when it's used as an adjective proper (and in moderation, not all the time and to the exclusion of all other black&shiny adjectives), but when it replaces his name or is used as a noun? No. Then, we would be talking about Sasuke the Bird Wonder. Not to mention it gets very confusing when there are multiple black-haired people in the story and the author noticeably struggles to identify them as separate people by replacing nouns with adjectives and hoping we'll follow.

I mean, is it really so wrong to use the character's name?

I spotted this thread while I was popping in to check messages and decided to add mine to the pile before I run off again.

1. Any fic where something like "the raven" or "raven-haired" is used to describe someone, because I just sit there going "Why is Sasuke suddenly a bird? Why is his hair made of birds?" and I can no longer read the story without seeing that. The sapphires [eyes] followed him, etc. How about using things like the young Uchiha or the dark-haired youth or Her sapphire-blue eyes...? This bothers me in every fandom I'm in.

2. Crossover Cliches

Naruto raised by *insert name here*, Kagome goes to *insert universe* after Inuyasha dumps her and falls in love with *insert name*, etc etc etc ad nauseum.

Almost all of it is tired, overdone, supersaturates the crossover categories, and almost no thought is given to giving the universes a proper crossover treatment, let alone keeping anyone in character. A little leeway is acceptable, but when I'm seeing Always SuperPowered and Angsty Abused Naruto the Demon Fox running into the arms of, well, self-insert disguised as canon character from another verse, I'm just passing it over.

3. OCs

Any time an OC is brought in, I cringe and wait for the other shoe to drop and prove my fears about the horror I sensed to be true.

It's not that they're awful - some just plain ARE all around -, it's that even ones that could be good are usually in the hands of a writer who has no idea how to make us A: care or B: handle the character's development. And it's like "oh man, you could be awesome, but what are you doing?"

4. Being bugged for updates, which I realize might fly in the face of some of your opinions about long-times-between updates.

Mostly this ties into the whole "GIMME GIMME I EXPECT THIS NOW NOW NOW" attitude fandoms seem to adopt at times. There's this On Demand sort of factor where you're almost expected to immediately produce updates, as if you have nothing else to do or have no other interests and each chapter is just another episode archived in the cable box. And yeah, I get it, it's frustrating for readers to be left hanging, but it's a bit unfair to writers when people do this to us. I don't like being expected to apologize for not blasting out a chapter at a rate that would make the Flash cry because I have other obligations, am interested in other things that ALSO make me happy, or simply lack the inspiration/motivation to continue at the moment. And yet, some people treat writers like we should have to.

Sometimes, the wait is worth it, especially when it's one of us who plan our stories way in advance. Quality, not quantity or speed of update. I'd rather you wait than get something I smashed into my keyboard without editing or refining.

And, when it comes down to it, I have no problem making people wait six years for an update.

Guys, I'm taking a hiatus from Naruto and NaruSaku by extension.

I'm sorry, really. I just am not into this fandom right now and I'm kind of tired of trying to pander to the ships.

Something I like shouldn't start to feel like a chore and TBH that's what NaruSaku is beginning to feel like for me.

So yeah, maybe I'll come back eventually, but as of now, I'm on hiatus.

Not all tropes are bad.

When played right, even the most overused ones can be awesome.

For example, Naruto itself is the basic story of an optimistic and hopeful young boy with a terrible burden/hidden past that sets out on a path that will ultimately decide his fate as an adult and, in the course of his journeys and battles, grows wiser in the ways of the world, comes into adulthood and, in turn, is revealed to be the hero of prophecy. He has a romantic interest that he must prove himself to and a close friend or known rival who will ultimately betray him and is his primary competition for the affections of his lover.

...Which can be applied to King Arthur, Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, etc (really this list goes on forever)

So effectively, we've seen this story before and, in part, that's why we connect to it so easily, even across language and cultural barriers. But it's how it's done that makes it or breaks it for us.

In fanfiction, it's the same principle.

For me, I have certain tropes I like more than others - I really am not a fan of Character Bash fics or Soulmates or Die for our Ship fics and I can't stand High School Special fics or complete rewrites of other series or fandoms with Naruto names slapped on them. To me, these are bad because they're overused and used badly. That's the real kicker. I have seen some awesome fanfics that do at least hit one of my berserk buttons of cliches, but I can overlook that if that cliched and overused trope is done really, really well. It's all in the handling of it and how the writer makes it theirs. Then it's transmuted into something worth sticking around for.

For example, if I ran into generic Sakura is torn between her longtime crush and the brash new tough guy at her school fic, there had better be something there to make me stick around, some way it's different from the rest. And I don't mean in a "SECRETLY SHE IS A STRIPPER WITH TRAGIC PAST AND SASUKE IS AN EVIL VAMPIRE AND NARUTO IS A SEXY WEREWOLF AND NOW SHE HUNTS THEM SO DANGEROUS SO SEXY SO SPARKLY" way. I mean, in a way that doesn't feel like the writer was doing lines and watching a movie and decided to copy paste the plot.

Oh man what did I miss, lol.

Pfft, everyone's guilty of OOC to some degree in fanfiction. When we write, we open the door and write from our own collective views of the world we have come to know, a view gleaned not just from canon but from the summation of canon and fandom (fanfiction to fanart to forums).

In example, how many of you see pictures or futurefics of Naruto with an orange coat with black flames on the hems of the coat and sleeves?

It's an idea based in a fanart. It has saturated the fandom for years and become part of our collective subconscious. We draw on it and, stranger still, these things can in some form become a part of the canon as we achieve a sort of supersaturation and the idea gets back to the writer, where it then takes root on its own and the canon becomes adaptive (This is best exemplified in long running series, like X-Men comics, Batman, and shows like Doctor Who, where members of the fandom are now writing the official canon).

It is the same for many things in this and other fandoms, especially ones where there's a large, vocal internet presence. Indeed, your very concept of a series is shaped largely by your experiences in collectively interpreting the series with others and interacting with that fandom. Over time, any fan inevitably drifts to a section of the fandom that best matches their interpretation of what they are reading/watching, where their views are then reinforced and isolate further from the main.

urrgh and that was terribly deep, I apologize.

And now for a little less analysis of fandom and more "Why OOC is Not Always Bad/OOC"

I ascribe to multiple universe theory, in which for Sakura from World X degrees to the right, she is not quite the same as Sakura from Prime World. So I can write a story with Sakura as the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and one with her as a Regency Era maiden and both would be technically OOC, as Sakura is neither of these, but since they are not Sakura-Prime, then theoretically I can write them as IC for the world they exist in and Sakura-Prime would become a manifestation of OOC in their worlds simply because she is out of their context.

Ergo, the canon is a manifestation of the core Prime Universe. All others are derivative and subject to an infinite level of variation and parallel universes and alternate realities and dimensions. But, should character X leave any universe in their chain, they will inevitably be considered OOC when placed next to their counterparts in other worlds. Likewise, characters within any variant universe may be considered IC for the context of their universe if their universe is predicated on a fixed premise being true.

E.G. If Sakura is a high school student, then she is IC if her universe is one where they all attend high school instead of killing each other to death with sharp pointy knives and ninja magic, and could not be expected to behave exactly the same as Sakura Prime.

It's up to the writer to keep that characterization up within their own universe instead of pogoing all over the place.

tl;dr

Basically, Hypertime/Infinite Crisis - all stories are true at some moment in time and if a big bad breaks the universe, then you have multiple Sakuras fighting each other, at least one of which is contractually obliged to be an axe crazy villain.

And now I really want to do a fanfic of multiple crashing realities. Thanks, brain.