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It was funny at first, but now I'm just somewhat sad, we get something good and others are acting in these unforeseen ways that makes them seem gloomier than we ever did with events like 469 and 615 where we nearly redlined and many other NS shippers may have jumped or abandoned. I was following some remarks over this chapter, many either ignoring or bypassing Sakura's role as expected and how some are question why kishi did this with Sakura and not Hinata. Well one thing caught my attention, one fan said this:
"What is kishi thinking bringing Minato in there with Sakura? If he makes NS canon he is just going to betry his fanbase.
This reminded me of another statement I found back towards 617: "This chapter with Hinata fixing Naruto's shoulder is evidence that Hinata is now the heroine, kishi is listening to the NH fanhase, its our manga.
Then I hit a tipping point when I listened to this one: "Kishi is going to make NH canon cause we are the biggest fanbase, we have been loyal and are entitled to canon because we supported the pairing in larger numbers and we showed support for Hinata as a popular character, he has heard our voices and is making Hinata the heroine by Naruto.
All these statements just made me react like this:
I simply said this, "When in anyway shape or form, is a fanbase to a manga series entitled to anything? How is any fanbase more important than another? Are some people so blind they ignore that compared to the greater whole, their fanbase is nothing compared to all those outside of their camp?
This notion of "entitlement" bewilders me, fans think that they are entitled to a say in something just because they supported it. Well this stuff does exist but not in the way these fans are advocating it. The way fanbase entitlement matters is if the fans themselves take part in shaping that universe at the desertion of the creators or if they want it, basically there is line for this stuff, and that's usually between the desires of the creators and the media form the series is presented in.
Basically for the authors/creators point, this depends on if they want fans to participate in something or make a difference in the story, but this also depends on the media form its presented in. What media form is Naruto presented in primarily? Graphic novel/comic like format, simply put, a book. Now what do you do with a book? You just read it back and forth looking at words and pictures. Now when it comes to a book, as you read and get an imagine (unless there are pictures), how exactly are you, the fan making an impact on the world of the character? Simply put, you don't. You are just an observer in most cases. Naruto as a story is displayed in this perspective Third person limited, this means we see the traits on many characters and many aspects of them, internally and externally and how these interact with others. In this type of format, the traits of each and every character are practically given to us over time, but in this format of preservative, it leaves us with things to try and interpret and figure out, namely lots of foreshadowing, yet as we figure these things out, do we actually make a difference on the characters? No we don't. In Naruto, we as the audience have no say in how the story goes. We exist outside of it, we only go along for the ride. This is what many of these fans do not realize, we exist outside the story, we don't have any say, the use and fate of the characters relies on the author and few other people.
However, there are times when fanbases do matter, but its not usually for the reasons these fans think, generally its all opinion and just criticism for the author(s) of a series. The creators of any series are always willing to take criticism for their work as they try to advocate it, they are always willing to listen, but this does not mean they will do what a fanbase says and many think in the case of Naruto, that kishi is just going to obey them. This therefore brings that sense or notion of entitlement. Flashback to 2010, kishi was explaining about how people reacted harshly to what he did with Sakura and spoke hinata here and there, well Kishi said he would give Sakura more of a heroine role, he has been trying to do that with 630 as we saw, did he ever say anything about Hinata becoming heroine or NH becoming canon though? No but some act as if he did. In another interview before RtN released in july of last year, again, kishi gave an interview about how at that point in the manga (we were either in the 5 kage vs madara fight or Sasuke and Itachi vs Kabuto), that most characters, mainly the K11 would get big moments, they did. But did he ever once say NH would be canon? No he did not.
This same mentality applies to all other fanbases in any aspect of a series. No one bases, voice is greater or smaller. We all have our preferences, there are many radical fans of any fanbase but also those who love or don't mind other pairings too. There are some who like NS and NH but maybe more than another or the same. The good thing about a fanbase is, everyone has their preferences and what they love and hate yet when others think its their voice that is bigger or has more meaning, it makes things all the worse, basically the read for the wrong reasons.
Naruto is an action series first, drama/comedy second, romance takes a backseat to most of this. Many people read for the wrong reasons and get a sense of entitlement simply because they follow it. This deal with entitlement is that if their fanbase is bigger, they should somehow be allowed a say, if thats true, what about the majority which exists outside the biggest fanbase? Thats the way these things usually go. No one fan or fanbase can ever even expect their voice to be bigger, this is the point. The way the story goes and how the fates of the characters unravel is up to kishi and his editors alone. We have no say in the matter and its not our position to make demands like this, all we can do is criticize and either like it or hate it, or tolerate it. No fan no matter how neutral, racdical, pairing or no pairing, region or otherwise, can say their fanbase somehow matters more than others. In the U.S. NH is big but it makes no difference, same with NS being bigger in japan with SS being even bigger than it there. Even Stuido Perriot loving Hinata, that has no matters either. If people cannot respect the choices of the author and limited few who make the series, they should stop reading or thinking they are entitled, the only entitled ones are those who actually make the manga, mainly kishi and his editors who make suggestions or have limited final says in somethings. He like many authors have taken suggestions and criticisms, but he does not end up using them now or at all does he? He may gain insight but this does not mean we are entitled simply because we have a small opinion.
A good example of this is Avatar the last airbender, many people loved Zukokata, it was a love hate relationship which was toyed with, but it didn't become canon. People loved this ship, some thought they would win and that in the same way some shippers in other series think. Yet this fanbase was ultimately crushed when one of the co-creators ultimately said at a comic con, they tried it, toyed with it, and it ultimately got on his nerves and he just could not deal with it anymore. These same creators went on just to mess with the entire fanbase using artwork they gained over the years just a few months after the season 3 finale in 2008. Point is, people loved this but the creators just did not care.
Another one, look at Marvel and DC, how many hundreds of times have they just plain messed with their fanbases? Killing off characters or altering reality to set things back for a certain character? They later revive these same characters within their own universes (marvel has a main continuty but also several alternate universes for how things occur or take place, basically the who ordeal of these realities differing in short ways and sometimes many ways). Marvel has done things several times to piss people off and only bring characters back later. They did this to captain America, guess what, he is alive and well. They recently did this to spider-man, doc-oak did a body swap plot to trap peter in his own dying body, peter seemingly failed to get his body back, this pissed many people off and now ock was suddenly wanting to be a hero because he was "overcome with good feelings" In the storyline, it was revealed peter did switch back but it was one way, ock still controlled his body, peter was only a subconscious undetected by ock. Peter observed stuff Ock did but did not like all of it, fearing he would ruin his reputation. Later ock found peter within his body, but rather than kill him, he did something worse, he mind wiped peter completely, so yeah peter is alive in his own body but has no idea who or what he is, this action just drew so much hate at the author, you think Dan slott (the author) even gave a crap? No he did not, he used anger to sell the comics and people still bought it. A fanbase could not want something like this to happen, yet it does. The majority of people wanted peter to live and succeed, well he lived at least but now he is a mentaly entity unsure of who or what he even is. Until Marvel sees that their desicion with ock in control of petes body wears off, they will pull some quick asspull to make them discover ock and petes current state, and then pull some range of BS to get ock out of petes body, giving control back to pete then pull some shield or magic crap that they had "a copy of his memories" and just give it all back to him, thats how they pull this crap every few years.
This really all comes back to the media aspect as I said, its just a book, you just read a book with words and images, no interaction whatsoever. Now in certain times, authors and creators react but usually in few cases where fans actually make a difference. One example was actually the batman comics during the 80s. We know robin, first was kitten greyson who became nightwing, then tim drake as the second robin after kitten, then we got a third robin (cannot remember his name) but people did not take kindly to him, so guess what the authors did? They held a contest to see if this robin should stay or go, the result, people wanted him to go, how did he go? The authors killed him off brutally, they made him get beaten by the joker, with a crowbar. It was brutal but the authors obeyed what the fans wanted. Generally when things like this come up, the fanbase has a matter of opinion and the popular opinon wins. Then there are the common "Choose your own adventure" series, but those are made for just single time books with no over arching storylines, namely those are just something to show how alternate story paths lead to different outcomes.
The key here is that, Naruto and Kishi, they never did any of these things, they always stuck with that one simple "we read the story as it goes on, we don't have an overly impacting role on the events."
There are cases of when fan demands are answered, but this is in "fanservie" giving the fans what they like, but when fanservice is too much, it simply becomes a sellout. Fanservice is not bad in all cases, its good to give it a bit but too much kills creative freedom of the developers. Look at a series like To love ru, its just an ecchi series for well stuff I'm not going to mention here. There really is no important story, its just basically too many boob related jokes. In the Naruto series though, the anime, omakes, fillers, and SD, they at least give the chance for the writiers to mess with this in a number of ways, they attacked every fanbase in SD, this was wonderful and funny at everyone. The anime fillers always did this in smaller amounts for short term comedy. Yet both the anime fillers and SD still tell of short term stories, they are not 100% fanservice, only in very rare cases like the romance scroll chapter in Naruto SD recently, so many people were falling in love with each other, it was one part fanservice, another part just messing with everyone (well in truth I think NS was the only one i could think of that was not messed with in that chapter, Naruto and Sakura just saw the chaos around them). Anyways fanservice is good but not when it becomes total, this is what some fanbases are trying to make things out to be though. If Kishi or anyone just gave in, then the Naruto series becomes nothing but fanservice, something it should not.
However when does fanbase entitlement matter? Well it matters in a different case, kinda like in media as mention. Unlike books, video games, those you interact with, they have fanbase entitlement. Look at the mass effect 3 fiasco last year, players spent hours on storylines to get some grand fate for the galaxy, yet at first it was all just the same, no choices mattered in the end of mass effect 3, everything created made no difference. It reached a point where a major movement was put up to try get the ending to change. Bioware responded after a few months and vowed to change the endings, the 3 intial fates were still there, but it expanded on all this so it was not all ending in a "You die no matter what situation" now you actually got to see the fate of everything you did (at least in that game). Point is, the fans were entitled to this because this was a story they made for themselves, if they had spent hours in these first 3 games only to have nothing come up in the end, you really think people would buy ME4 if it ever came out? Much less would be willing to buy it.
Another case for this could also be said for simply just portions of the game, like multiplayer. Many multiplayer games, they have certain people divided over how things in these modes work, some people are causal while others are hardcore, yet developers listen to all their entire fanbase over this because with things like skill and accessibility to a game always differing, it could really impact who plays a game and who likes or hates it. Halo 4 for instance, its multiplyer divided bits of its own fanbase because it did a few things other shooters were doing. Many were hating it because Halo had not used it for so long, others didn't mind cause it was just general stuff other shooters used for years. There were also those who were competitive or "professional league" gamers who got to try stuff early and constantly with the developers. Now because the game developers with a multiplayer mode want to always sell as much as they can, here is the deal, if there are issues in a mode, should they listen to the hardcore crowd cause they have more skill? The casual crowd cause they are the largest? or the MLG or professional players just cause they have offical titles? Short answer is, they should listen to them all, all these fanbases are constantly playing these games, unlike books, games have you making an impact and a role in the overall product, if a weapon or so is just too powerful, if the developer looks at it enough, they can change it. Games you play more than once and they are always more active, books generally you only go through them once, this is the difference.
When it comes down to fanbases in manga like Naruto though, they cannot expect to somehow be more important than another for any reason, we all have our likes and dislikes in it but nothing should change the opinion or desires of those writing the story we enjoy. I love NS but if kishi does not bring it, oh well, I would be upset, but no amount of my complaining would change that. If NS happened, haters would have to do the same thing, deal with it. Its not our story, its not our series, it does not belong to any fanbase. Naruto belongs to Masahi Kishimoto and a select other few, published and copyrighted with the lisence and allowed to be use by approval generally by Weekly Shouen Jump, partically by Viz Media. No fans or fanbases of this series own it in anyway shape or form, we simply just sit back and enjoy the story as it unfolds. If you don't like it, you re free to leave at any point.
