Naruto Naruto Petpeeves

[atlas_hugged]

I think my biggest pet peeve is the absolutely glacial pace a lot of authors set for their fiction, and the reason they do it.

Fuck training scenes. I can't honestly care less that Naruto (or your chosen favorite character) discovered a way to do something just a little bit better, if the only application of that training the reader will ever see is 40 chapters from now because the author wants to show even more training.

I'm also getting really tired of the misunderstood genius cliche. I get that Naruto is smarter or cleverer in some way than most people in the setting realize. But the way most authors use this trope, Naruto is the second coming of ninja einstein ready to revolutionize the ninja world's understanding of every facet of their art, but he was kept down by society.

In recent memory, I think the story most exemplary of these qualities is A Drop of Poison. Every chapter of that story that I've read has somebody (usually Iruka, but sometimes the special summons Naruto gets) amazed at the latest breakthrough Naruto has made through his special training. The training never ends, and the plot never advances.

 

[ArchfiendRai]

I read that fic way back in the day. Then it went dead for a long time and when it came back I didn't even try to get back into it.

But yeah, the never ending stories get pretty annoying. I always get so annoyed when it's 200k words and the Chunin exams aren't even done yet. Its one of the reasons I started reading crossover a lot more than I used. Perfect for me. Introduces me to new series and if I have to deal with a training arc at least its something new.

 

[Matdeception]

SI is auto avoid for me. AT least pretend like you're not just wishing you were your own character.

I can't even... I mean, why would anyone really want to mutilate themselves like this? Shit, if I ever write an SI fic I can only imagine how bad ass my ass kickings are going to be (As in me getting my ass kicked). Huh, that might be funny actually.

 

[goldenarms]

The whole Illusion to eat more Ichiraku - First I've ever heard of this, so I'm kinda curious if it's canon or more fanon based.

It's in the first databook/fanbook under the Ichiraku section, where, consequentially, we first see Ayame in manga print (and never again...). She comments something to the effect of, "I've been known to don a disguise just to eat another bowl of Ichiraku's noodles."

 

[Matdeception]

The whole Illusion to eat more Ichiraku - First I've ever heard of this, so I'm kinda curious if it's canon or more fanon based.

It's in the first databook/fanbook under the Ichiraku section, where, consequentially, we first see Ayame in manga print (and never again...). She comments something to the effect of, "I've been known to don a disguise just to eat another bowl of Ichiraku's noodles."

That is seriously awesome.

 

[Amberion]

No, what I utterly despise is what so many people do to characters like Sasuke. "I am Uchiha hear me roar I demand you give me your techniques fuck the Hokage I'm Uchiha we're better" I mean come fucking on. What part of any of that was any fun? Do you get off on character assassination? Just kill him if you bloody want to avoid him THAT much.

Fuck you.

To be fair. That is pretty much how Sasuke was when Rock Lee challanged him. Not the whole "give me everything I want", but that he was superior due to being an Uchiha.

 

[Altered Nova]

Yeah, and he only had that attitude when someone challenged him to a fight, he didn't go around acting all smug and superior to everyone as normal behavior. And Rock Lee promptly smacked that notion of Uchiha superiority right out of his skull. The only times I can recall him acting similar to that again was against Kakashi and Danzou where he was pissed off that outsiders would use his clan's kekkei genkai, which isn't quite the same thing.

 

[nixofcyzerra]

What was it he said to Orochimaru? "You might be a genius in the eyes of most people, but to an Uchiha you're simply average," or something like that?

Sasuke's a smug d*ck.

 

[jakkuzarippa]

Pretty much. Not bashing, its a part of his character. Its just that its done in a such a ham handed way it turns many off, especially since he promptly gets owned or tricked 3 seconds after being smug.

When Schneizel does it, there's a flair and panache to it.

 

[Altered Nova]

Yeah okay, he's a smug dick. But to be fair, he hates Orochimaru and he knows that being weaker than Itachi is a huge sore point for him, so this comes across as psychological warfare as much as it does smug superiority. I mean, he never shit talks anyone else to this degree, so exaggerating this aspect of his character in fanfics is still annoying.

 

[nixofcyzerra]

True, most fic writers take this aspect of his character to a ridiculous extreme. Then again, most fanfic writers do that with every character they write about.

 

[H-Man]

At this point, I'm sick and tired of nice Naruto, sort of.

By this, I mean the stories that do their best to follow canon and not change Naruto much... but STILL end up with a Naruto that's not a pouting, whiny brat who doesn't respect anyone, by the time he meets Jiraiya.

[Saying this after comparing the actual Naruto-meets-Ebisu-again scene to the many, many fanfics that go out of their way to make Naruto justified in his actions. Which he isn't, he's being bratty and a jerk and annoying.]

 

[Knyght]

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)!"

I hate seeing this.

1. If a writer feels the need to write their jutsu names with a different format then italics are perfect for the job and common as hell. Bold is passable, if not preferable, and I can live with bold and italics used together. But underlining just looks damn ugly to me, especially if you can see more than one on a page or it's a particularly long one.

2. What's the point of using the Japanese name for the jutsu if you're just going to write the English translation right next to it? Use that translation in the first place, incorporate the translation into the narrative afterwards, leave the translation at the end of the chapter or don't bother translating it at all. And doing this every single time the jutsu is used - even in the very same chapter - is criminal.

3. Having a ninja call their jutsu all the time is damn annoying and rarely even happens in the manga. Usually the jutsu name is just superimposed over the page for the reader. It can be just as annoying when the writer directly tells the readers that their ninjas won't be calling out their jutsu or when one of the characters says as much.

 

[goldenarms]

- Fanfics that have nothing to do with the stories they're based on. If I can replace all the Naruto character names with another randomly drawn one and people can't tell it used to be Naruto fic, you seriously need to reconsider writing fanfics and just start making original novels. Or at least keep that smut on your desktop.

- XINO. "I love everything about Naruto except everything that makes him Naruto!" Same deal as the above -- if I can Ctrl + H in a different name and no one can tell the difference, go write some original material and leave the fandom out of it.

 

[da_fox2279]

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique)!"

I hate seeing this.

1. If a writer feels the need to write their jutsu names with a different format then italics are perfect for the job and common as hell. Bold is passable, if not preferable, and I can live with bold and italics used together. But underlining just looks damn ugly to me, especially if you can see more than one on a page or it's a particularly long one.

2. What's the point of using the Japanese name for the jutsu if you're just going to write the English translation right next to it? Use that translation in the first place, incorporate the translation into the narrative afterwards, leave the translation at the end of the chapter or don't bother translating it at all. And doing this every single time the jutsu is used - even in the very same chapter - is criminal.

3. Having a ninja call their jutsu all the time is damn annoying and rarely even happens in the manga. Usually the jutsu name is just superimposed over the page for the reader. It can be just as annoying when the writer directly tells the readers that their ninjas won't be calling out their jutsu or when one of the characters says as much.

This. So MUCH this.

2: Place all translations at the end of the chapter. I hate when authors front-load translations and copious notes. I just want to read the story; I'll worry about your thoughts and misc. crap after.

Also? Most readers of fanfic do know what the techniques are called. If we don't, we can generally figure it out from the description in the narrative. If we can't, there's always the wiki.

3: Characters tend to call out their jutsu names in the anime; not always, but quite a few. I blame this for the tendency of authors to have the characters do the same in fic. Still, very annoying.

If you're writing a fic where the characters have some common sense, remember: calling out your attack is giving the enemy time to move and/or counter your technique. Dumbass.

 

[ArchfiendRai]

^^^^^^

Argh I HATE that.

Especially if they don't actually know Japanese. It will probably make for some consistency issues, but seriously, don't go for a translating program.

 

[seitora]

copypasta of some of my posts from the Stories you wish you can destroy topic

On a different topic, I'm still trying to figure out where this Kiba as a misogynist fad ever came from. Not a single manga moment I can think of it (if anything, an older sister and single mom who he comments drove off his dad would imply the contrary). Was there some stupid Anime thing that drove this?

It's the NaruHina Shippers or just Shipping wars in general. Shippers twist characters they feel are potential threats to their OTP into twisted evil caricatures of themselves no matter how illogical or OOC it is.
In Kiba's case they exaggerate his dog connection by describing him as an Alpha Male Wannabe who marks any girl he wants as his "bitch" or whatever. Which I find insulting to dogs.

If anything, the way a lot of the trash fics write it, Naruto is probably the misogynist (though the manner in which he does stretches meaning of the word) by always killing off all the male bad guys but sometimes listening to the sob stories of, offering mercy to and/or sexing up the female bad girls.

 

[TC_Hazard]

Agreed on the calling out your attacks thing.

Also, it annoys me when they put the name both in English and Japanese.

Or when authors who don't know Japanese pretend they do and have the characters use entire phrases in said language.

What was it he said to Orochimaru? "You might be a genius in the eyes of most people, but to an Uchiha you're simply average," or something like that?

Sasuke's a smug d*ck.

Yeah, but that was older Sasuke after getting insanely full of himself.

Kid Sasuke (who is usually the one who in fanon is all 'you must teach me all your jutsu because I'm an Uchiha and the sun comes out of my ass'') doesn't really do that.

 

[ArchfiendRai]

Agreed on the calling out your attacks thing.

Also, it annoys me when they put the name both in English and Japanese.

Or when authors who don't know Japanese pretend they do and have the characters use entire phrases in said language.

Oh good lord, there was this one fic a while back (Naruto, Shika, and Lee end up being thrown back in time) that was REALLY bad about that. He had Japanese thrown in every five seconds. it was incredibly annoying.

 

[Fyrwulf]

Honestly, the whole idea of there being enough civilians in a hidden village to even attempt to be some kind of power block. By civilian I mean somebody who was never a ninja and never made an attempt to be one. The only cannon examples we have are Teuchi and Ayame, every other shop seems to be staffed by retired or failed ninja.

Putting an 's' on the end of Japanese words to make them plural. It's a conjugation that English borrowed from Spanish and so far as I can tell Japanese word derive singular or plural status from the context of the sentence.

Hyphenating Naruto's surname (Namikaze-Uzumaki). It's a Western European convention that started among nobles because the sole heir to a major title of nobility was female and she was marrying into an equal or lesser status family. It gave the resulting children the option to carry on their mother's maiden name. So far as I can tell, married couples in the Narutoverse don't change their names.

This is similar to the translation pet peeve, in that I hate notations for footnotes. Seriously, assume your readership has the attention span to remember what the hell they just read and relate it to the authors notes.

 

[da_fox2279]

Hyphenating Naruto's surname (Namikaze-Uzumaki). It's a Western European convention that started among nobles because the sole heir to a major title of nobility was female and she was marrying into an equal or lesser status family. It gave the resulting children the option to carry on their mother's maiden name. So far as I can tell, married couples in the Narutoverse don't change their names.

I HATE this. With a passion. Simply because it's so damn idiotic, and because I have yet to see / hear of a single RL Japanese person do this.

Yes yes, fiction not reality, but still.

Something else related to the Name Issue, is when Naruto decides to change his name to Namikaze instead of remaining Uzumaki. Say what you want about Naruto, but he's always wanted to prove himself, for others to see him - not the fox, not whoever he may or may not be related to - just him.

 

[Yorae Rasante]

Ah, THAT'S why this irked me whenever I read it.
I thought it was just because Naruto is supposed to keep the Uzumaki name due to that clan having higher status, but always thought there was something more about my dislike I was missing.

 

[Fyrwulf]

Something else related to the Name Issue, is when Naruto decides to change his name to Namikaze instead of remaining Uzumaki. Say what you want about Naruto, but he's always wanted to prove himself, for others to see him - not the fox, not whoever he may or may not be related to - just him.

The hilarious part of this is that the Uzumaki name is far more prestigious. Most of the ignorance about the Uzumaki name in cannon I put down to a severe case of, "What have you done for me lately?"

 

[nixofcyzerra]

On a different topic, I'm still trying to figure out where this Kiba as a misogynist fad ever came from. Not a single manga moment I can think of it (if anything, an older sister and single mom who he comments drove off his dad would imply the contrary). Was there some stupid Anime thing that drove this?

It's the NaruHina Shippers or just Shipping wars in general. Shippers twist characters they feel are potential threats to their OTP into twisted evil caricatures of themselves no matter how illogical or OOC it is.
In Kiba's case they exaggerate his dog connection by describing him as an Alpha Male Wannabe who marks any girl he wants as his "bitch" or whatever. Which I find insulting to dogs.

It's definitely just due to the fact that Hinata's on Team 8. If she was on Team 10 with Shikamaru and Choji, they'd probably up Shika's misogynistic traits to 11 so Naruto can kick his ass for telling Hinata to shut up and make him a sandwich or something.

What was it he said to Orochimaru? "You might be a genius in the eyes of most people, but to an Uchiha you're simply average," or something like that?

Sasuke's a smug d*ck.

Yeah, but that was older Sasuke after getting insanely full of himself.

Kid Sasuke (who is usually the one who in fanon is all 'you must teach me all your jutsu because I'm an Uchiha and the sun comes out of my ass'') doesn't really do that.

True, although Sasuke did display similar behaviour when Lee challenged him in part 1.

That way, I saw it, Sasuke actually takes an incredible amount of pride in his clan, and has an incredibly high opinion of his bloodline, to the point where he doesn't really feel the need to brag about it.

After all, it's the people who are insecure deep down that feel the need to brag, right? They need to convince themselves too.

Sasuke's not so convinced that his clan is the best that he considers it a fact on par with the sky being blue, but it's fairly close. If someone starts challenging him because he's an Uchiha, or starts trying to use him to "steal the Uchiha strength," he'll do his best to ensure they understand their foolishness.

Otherwise, he's confident enough in his clan's superiority that he doesn't feel the need to go shouting it from the roof-tops.

That said, even the most arrogant version of Sasuke isn't going to go around demanding that people teach him Jutsu. He's an Uchiha. The elite. He can get strong on his own, and his Sharingan will allow him to copy any Jutsu he really wants as long as he teaches himself the prerequisites, or is taught them by the Jounin-sensei that all Shinobi get. He might demand more training from Kakashi, but he isn't going to bug anyone else.

 

[NMR-3]

Y'know, besides the clichés already listed, the thing that annoys me most is the same goddamn jokes that were old half a decade ago, that are in a lot of fics even now.
"Hurr, Orochimaru is a pedophile!", sweatdrops, faceplants, the "Dentists are teh evul and masters of a global conspiracy 1!!!1!" in HP fanfiction, all of that shit.

Needed to get that off my chest.