Latest Posts by madtank95 - Page 2

Naruto Thoughts

It’s kind of funny to go through AO3 and see how pervasive certain canon has become that has either been implicitly or explicitly contradicted by the text. Little stuff and big stuff scattered throughout.

Like, how everyone assumes Kakashi only read Icha Icha, but I’m pretty sure the implication is supposed to be that, during the bell test, it was his first time reading the series. Then there’s all this stuff about how Kakashi never taught Team 7 anything just because we never see it in the page. It’s pretty clearly implied that time has passed between the bell test and the Wave Arc, with the assumption being that training happened during that time. I think Kishimoto just doesn’t like drawing training scenes. Then there’s the bit about Sakura being super weak, like yeah, she’s not written super well and she’s definitely weaker than the boys, but her standard is still super human. Sakura, even in the first half of the manga, would be able to beat any regular person without any kind of problem. Sasuke seems to lose a lot of personality too, he didn’t get all stoic until after the time skip, he’s actually pretty expressive throughout the first half. Then there’s the idea that Naruto was outright abused by the citizens of Konoha. Okay, so we have no idea how he was taken care of between baby to kid in an apartment, but there’s nothing to indicate that he was treated nearly as horribly as a lot fic seem to write him to be. In the flashbacks it looks like he was pretty much the target of a lot of neglect and poor treatment with a lot of glares and people talking badly about him. But I don’t think there’s any evidence he was physically harmed. Not that abuse needs to be physical to be bad but people seem to really like to turn Naruto’s backstory into just the worst. The Sandaime might have made a lot of mistakes, but I don’t think even he would have allowed Naruto to be the regular target of people throwing things at him and feeding him rotten food. I don’t know, it’s just kind of funny how things got all twisted around in the fandom.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s Headcannon

I was feeling nostalgic thinking of the show and had this thought, where did Yusei, Jack and Crow learn to ride their duel runners? The show says that the duel runner Jack stole from Yusei was the first one he built, but they already knew how to drive and do so well enough that Jack became the King of turbo duels shortly thereafter. All three do some pretty spectacular stunts while riding, and that’s not the kind of thing you learn in a day. So I was thinking, Satellite’s a dumping ground for junk and trash, and something that probably became a lot less popular after duel runners were invented are regular old motorcycles. What if the guys found some, or parts of some that Yusei and Crow then built into bikes, and taught each other how to ride. Martha’s great but there’s no way she had the time to keep constant supervision over all the kids she was raising all the time. It’s canon that Yusei, Jack, and Crow had the time and lack of supervision to get caught up in gang fights, so clearly they had pretty free reign to get up to who knows what. So we’ve got three pre-teen boys with little supervision who find and reconstruct some old motorcycles where they then teach themselves how to drive. They would have had plenty of space to run around and I imagine they probably dared each other into doing stupid stunts. They also probably taught themselves turbo duels with regular duel disks. I’m just picturing them being the adrenaline junkies that they are and doing all sorts of stupid stuff that probably eventually ended in the three beat up motorcycles being destroyed and then after they met Kyousuke and made their gang. We never got a full idea how long that stuff went in for, but I’m guessing only like a year or so. So, pre-teen trio teach themselves to drive and run their bikes into the ground over the course of a few years. Then the three, probably age 14-ish meet Kyousuke and all that stuff happens. The three split after the gang fell apart, at some point Yusei falls in with the three friends we see at the start of the show and he builds his first duel runner. This was something he probably started after their motorcycles broke and worked on off and on over the next three-ish years until Jack steals it at age 16-ish. Two years later and we’ve got the beginning of the show with Yusei at 18.

Frustration of a Fic Reader

One of the most frustrating things about reading fanfic is finding a story that has a really interesting sounding premise, or is one of the very few about a rare ship, only for it to be really poorly written. This is even worse with small fandoms because you’re completely starved for content but what little you have isn’t any good. I don’t have the ability to look past grammatical errors and shitty dialogue to enjoy what good there does exist. So it’s there but I can’t enjoy it and I don’t really have any other options.

There’s also the frustration of stumbling across a really good story far too soon, when it only has one or two chapters. With official webcomics or a webnovel, there’s a schedule you can rely on for releases, but with fic, you’re stuck waiting in ambiguity until the writer posts. Though, at least this frustration is balanced out a bit by the feeling of excitement you get when you’ve got that email in your inbox giving you a new update. I love that feeling, brief as it is.

AO3 Complaint

It’s really frustrating that AO3 conflates Past relationship tags with the overall relationship tag. If I’m trying to find fics about a specific ship, I don’t want to have to deal with stories that are actually about a different relationship and the one I want is already broken up. I wish there was a feature for just ships that are past or temporary. It’s really annoying when people tag a ship that they plan to break up or are actively writing negatively about. Everyone is free to write about whatever ship they want, I just find it kind of rude for people to tag ships they don’t actually like so that people who do like it and are specifically searching for fics about them end up having to deal with fics that are the exact opposite of what they want to read.

The same thought goes into Tumblr and other social media post where people tag ships that they’re actually against and force people who do like them to read their negativity.

Naruto Fic Problem

There’s this kind of annoying trend in Naruto fanfic where Naruto is basically abused by the whole village, constantly getting yelled at, only being sold rotten food, his teachers purposely sabotaging him, people actively attacking him, etc. This has always bothered me because it feels like writers are taking things way too far in his treatment. Especially when they include other ninja acting that way when that’s never really shown. I mean, yeah, there’s was that one guy who threw a mask at him and no one really went out of their way to be kind besides Iruka and the Hokage but they never show evidence that he was constantly being tormented. I just can’t imagine that if things were taken to that extreme that one, the Hokage never would have stepped in or two, that Naruto would have put up with things to that degree. It makes me uncomfortably to read, and I like canon-divergent stories where someone takes him in and raises him, but I hate reading about him being treated like that, it just doesn’t seem realistic and makes me sad. It also doesn’t make Konoha worth saving, if it’s people are that bad, why bother with it? I like it having flaws and exploring its corruption is interesting, but people take it to an extreme that just makes it seem flat and dull. I’m just really not a fan of every civilian in Konoha being a fear driven, pack mind orientated monster towards Naruto.

ROTBTFD Fic Idea

So I was feeling nostalgic for when this fandom was a thing and Harry Potter was still alright and I’ve decided to summarize an old fic idea I had back then.

It starts in a basic Hogwarts AU setting, with the Big Four in their friend group, plus Anna. Jack and Elsa are kind of a thing; Rapunzel and Eugene, and Anna and Kristoff, are fully dating; and Astrid and Hiccup are definitely not. It’s that thing where Hiccup does his best to avoid the rest of the teenagers from Berk, which in this world is a small magical island village off the coast of the UK. (Think where A Thing of Vikings has it located.) The basic dynamics of all those stories.

Anyway, something or other happens and the group of five friends end up performing a spell that goes wrong and they accidentally pull their counterparts from a different dimension to their world, plus whoever were in their immediate surroundings. Of course, I’m talking about their movie versions. This ends up with Hiccup and the gang (I’m thinking sometime after HTTYD 2 and ignoring 3 because I hate it), Merida and her three maybe suitors (I just imagine her dragging them into misadventures because I think that’s a fun idea and she needs friends), Rapunzel and Eugene (I’m working with the theory that she’s cousins with Elsa and Anna so they all know each other), Anna and Elsa and Kristoff (and maybe Honeymaren and Ryder, I go back and forth on whether to have Frozen 2 be a thing), and finally Jack Frost and Peter Pan (this comes out of no where but I really like the idea of Peter being a spirit and acting as Jack’s little brother figure since Jamie is long gone by this point).

All the movie versions exist in the same world, some post post apocalyptic one where at some point civilization collapsed and started over, this time with magic being far more abundant. Jack and Peter are something like 3,000 to 5,000 years old. They hide as soon as they get to the Hogwarts world because they were in the middle of a fight with some shadow spirits or something who make a break for it towards the Forbidden Forest, they’ll spend most of the story dealing with rounding them up and staying hidden while everything else is happening, maybe.

The story is mostly going to be about the clashing dynamic of the groups. Like the movie versions don’t really know each other as anything but fellow nation leaders (I also kind of imagine there being some hostilities between the Highlands and the Barbaric Archipelago to add tension), while the teenagers are all close friends. Hiccup’s relationship with the Dragon Riders is nothing like the strained relationship of his counterpart (and he and Astrid are married), same with Merida and her suitors. Everyone is just really different and I thought it’d be fun to play around with them meeting each other.

At some point, towards the end, Jack and Peter finally reveal themselves and they know how to get back to their world. This will have the biggest changes because unlike everyone else, they’re a different species from their counterparts and ridiculously older. There’s absolutely no romance between Jack Frost and Elsa. Also depending on if this includes Frozen 2, Elsa has maybe been helping Jack and Peter in her role as a bridge.

It’s a lot of vague ideas and a general sense of a plot that I will never write because it has way too big of a cast to balance and is beyond my abilities. But I do still think it’s a fun concept.

Buffy Idea

So there’s all sorts of ideas and headcannons for how vampires work in the Buffyverse, most of the ones we meet are mindless which completely contrasts just how much personality we get from the Whirlwind. The meta explanation for this of course is that most vampires are just plot devices rather than actual characters the way Spike, Angel, Darla and Dru are. Then there’s the whole Angel/Angelus dichotomy vs how Spike doesn’t change too much after he gets his soul aside from a better moral compas. So I was thinking, we know vampires are made when the human soul dies and a demon takes over the body, but what if it’s essentially a demon soul that takes the place of the human one but leaves everything else intact. Like, people are made up of mind, body, and soul and it takes all three to make a person, so a vampire is still 2/3 who they used to be but the demon that replaces their soul completely changes who they are on a fundamental level. Just how evil the new vampire is depends on what kind of demon ends up reanimating them. So poor Angel got reanimated by a particularly nasty demon and since as a human he was unfulfilled and pretty immature, the demon has a lot more influence over who he becomes as Angelus compared to Spike who, I would say, had a weaker demon reanimate him and probably a stronger presence from the other 2/3 of William, he was a poet and a pretty passionate guy, so the demon didn’t have quite as big of an influence. Of course, the rest of the Whirlwind trained him to suppress his more human aspects and let the demon have more control. The chip wouldn’t let him have his demon have free reign so his more human sides could come out more. That’s why when he got his human soul back it wasn’t as big of an adjustment, because he’d kind of already been making space for it. Angel on the other hand had his properly evil demon running loose completely before his human soul was stuffed back in without warning. It was a far harsher adjustment, traumatic enough for him the completely wall off the demon aspect in his mind to the point even some memories were actively repressed along with it. They just ended up with two very different demons and started out as two very different people, which is why they ended up being two very different vampires. All vampire are as unique from each other as humans are.

Naruto time travel fic idea

I have this idea for a fun MadaTobi time travel fic where Madara and Tobirama accidentally go back in time to before Konoha was founded, this is in an everything is good world where Izuna didn’t die and the whole thing was just an accident. They end up at a point where Madara and Hashirama are, like, 16 and Tobirama and Izuna are 12. So Madara and Tobirama have had basically no interaction at this point, and then suddenly these adult versions of them show up bickering like an old married couple and clearly pining after each other. They also know way too much about each other, it’s freaking out their clans because you get to know people in a completely different way when you live in the same village and work together every day than when you have bordering territories and only really see each other during skirmishes. Tobirama complains about Madara’s sleeping habits and references having tea with other members of the Uchiha clan; Madara has a lot to say about Tobiramas’s work habits and insane experiments, he’s also obsessed with this one Senju bakers sweet rolls or something. Little stuff like that that just completely blindsided their clans. Maybe Hikaku and Touka are there too to make snide comments and just gleefully watch their respective clan heads (Hashirama would have given up the title to his brother in order to become Hokage) drive everyone around them insane while dealing sexual tension that freaks out teenage Madara and kicks the Senju clan into overprotective high gear (because again, 12). I don’t know, I just foresee a lot of comedy potential for someone who is a way better writer than I am.

Superman - a thought

So Lex Luthor is just the worst but you can kind of get where he comes from if you assume Superman hasn’t told anyone he came to Earth as a baby. Like, it’s always been my assumption that he let everyone think he came not long before he made his hero debut so no one has any reason to think he has a secret identity. I mean, he tells everyone his name is Kal-El and that he came from Krypton, which is true, so why would anyone think he has a third name? But this idea also leads people to think he excaped Krypton as an adult, which for someone with Superman’s ideals and moral code doesn’t make sense. Clark would never abandon his friends and family willingly. So if you’re Lex, you see this ultra powerful alien being who left his own planet without trying to save anyone else and came to a different one that gave him superpowers and is worshipped for doing things that, with his abilities aren’t all that hard to do. The hero thing is easy when you don’t have to give anything up to do it. It absolutely makes sense not to trust him, the whole situation is super suspicious and that worst case scenario is basically Omniman from Invincible. Of course Lex is also a narcissist with a god complex, so there’s that dynamic coming into play but it was just a thought I had after watching the show.

Naruto Fic Idea

I have this idea for a time travel fic where Obito manages to do something that ends with Team Minato all returning to their bodies at some point before Kannabi bridge at the moment of their death. Of course, for Rin it would be the Sanbi incident, and I’m thinking for Minato it should be the Kyuubi attack, then Obito from the fourth shinobi war. So these three are coming from pretty bad moments in time and they find waking up in the past a second chance to fix things. Minato and Rin don’t know what’s going on, but they think Obito dies at the bridge and saving him is one of their major goals. Obito has a plan, he wants to change everything and go after things like a real fix-it, he gets Rin and Minato on his side easily, and then there’s Kakashi.

Kakashi died in his sleep, probably sitting in a chair on his deck watching the sunset, surrounded by his ninken and maybe with Tenzo or Gai sitting next to him. (I’m a kakayama and a kakagai shipper but it can be whoever you want or no one if you don’t want to have shipping involved.) Anyway, when Kakashi wakes up in the past he’s horrified. He has spent his entire life fighting for Konoha, first as a solider, then as Hokage and finally as an advisor, working towards real peace. And they succeeded. (I choose to ignore all Boruto related stuff, I kind of like combining this idea with my Daimyo Kakashi fic idea.) Whatever you imagine future Konoha being like, I like to think they brought the shinobi age to an end. They were moving past the time of mercenaries, fighting and war in favor of real progress. Details aside, Kakashi died feeling genuinely accomplished, having lived a long and full life, he was ready to pass on and he is not thrilled to find himself in the past.

When he finds out Obito is behind it, he is absolutely furious. He had mostly come to peace with what Obito had done, but he is now confronted once again with just how selfish and shortsighted he is. I imagine this fic mostly from the POV of Minato and Rin, maybe Kushina too. They are completely confused, they remember Obito as a happy and brave young man, and Kakashi as a cold and detached kid with stunted emotional growth. They have no idea what’s going on, they’re in favor of changing things and trying to fix it, Obito is trying to convince Kakashi that this is a good idea. All Kakashi really cares about is whether or not his future still exists somewhere and completely done with things otherwise. He doesn’t think it’s a future worth giving up just to appease his regrets. He’s also tired, Kakashi died from old age so he was, like >90, and he has no interest in repeating it all again.

I’m not really sure what to do from there, I just think it’d be an interesting set of dynamics.

Problem with tagging

One of the best things about archive of our own is it’s tags, it really helps sort through the frankly ridiculous number of stories on the sight for the content you’re actually looking for, mostly. The problem, of course is that some writers seem to add them all over the place even when they don’t actually apply to the story. Like, why would you tag a relationship for a fic where the two characters don’t even actually appear? It’s really frustrating if that’s the pairing you’re looking for but the tag is used where they aren’t even really the content.

Also, there is absolutely a thing as too many tags, some people could really benefit from a little more restraint.

Fandom Complaint

I really hate the Marvel Superfamily trope for a number of reasons, mostly centering on the infantilization of Peter Parker and the erasure of his actual family in favor of Steve and Tony which makes me sick, I actually like that pairing but just give them their own kid, Peter’s characters is so OOC in all those stories anyway, just go all the way and make an actual OC.

But whatever, right now the thing that pisses me off the most about Marvel Superfamily is that they’ve stolen the term “Superfamily” from Superman and his actual family. How am I supposed to look up content about Chris, Conner, Jon, Kara and various related family members if Superfamily isn’t about the actual Superman Family?

Dragon Ball Fic Idea

I’m sure someone has likely written something along these lines before but this is just a thought I’ve had. So the Saiyans are all but extinct, but they’re a tough warrior race so there’s believable odds that more than just Vegeta, Raditz and Napa survived the destruction of their planets. I’d find it interesting to have Vegeta and Goku have to handle some group of Saiyans that managed to stay hidden, with like political intrigue and culture clash or whatever. Especially considering Goku is supposedly a third class Saiyan or whatever who managed to go Super Saiyan, not to mention everyone else on Earth. I read an interesting fic where the author suggested that the adrenaline Gohan, Goten and Trunks inherited from their mothers makes the jump to Super Saiyan easier than it is for full blooded Saiyans. That would be a really interesting idea in the context of a larger group of Saiyans, especially if, like, most of them are men and they haven’t really been able to find a compatible species or anything. Actually, that last idea coming into play during the Vegeta Saga would be super interesting. Like, Raditz comes to find Goku only once he learns about Gohan and his priorities completely shift because, holy shit, his baby brother found a compatible mate. That could be a potentially huge idea for them. Maybe have it be a full on AU where Vegeta is secretly working to undermine Frieza and has a group of hidden Saiyans working as a rebellion or something. I don’t know, there’s a lot of ideas you could play with. Just food for thought.

Weird Fanfic Tropes

Okay, so one thing I just can’t understand is how in fanfic with Spider-Man and Daredevil, so many people always have Spidey as out of his depth with Daredevil coming in to get him out of trouble, or fighting on his behalf, or like Daredevil is just so much more capable. Okay, so I really hate reading about teenage Spider-Man but this is something else. Daredevil’s only super powers are his heightened senses, he’s a really good fighter and all but he’s still a baseline human. Spider-Man on the other hand is super powered all around, he’s several times faster, stronger and tougher than just about every regular criminal he meets, and that’s on top of his spider sense that is a literal precognitive danger warning system. He’s virtually untouchable to anyone who isn’t also a super. So why the hell do people keep writing him like a gang of regular guys with guns is going to be any kind of a threat? They aren’t, and he also totally overpowers Daredevil at his weakest, he doesn’t need saving.

MCU Spider-Man

So this is really late but I was thinking about Civil War and wasted opportunities recently. They should have had the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man be the one introduced, with maybe Tony going to his dorm or apartment to do the whole “I know who you are come to Germany with me” thing. They could have had Flash as his best friend and Zendaya playing a kick ass Mary Jane Watson. I can’t get over how the Michelle Jones character was just so bland and a waste of her talents. Also all the other MCU casting has been horrible, and yes I mean Tom Holland too.

Star Wars Thoughts

I feel like, since Obi-Wan is such a beloved character, he kind of gets put on this pedestal by a lot of the fan base and, as a result, Anakin tends to get shafted. People don’t seem to understand how Anakin’s fall really works, there always seems to be just the most superficial understanding of how his Turn happened. No one seems to want to think about it, but Obi-Wan had a pretty big role in Anakin’s Fall, actually.

Because, here’s the thing, Obi-Wan is a good Jedi, and a good friend, it’s clear he loves Anakin, but he is not a good teacher. And Anakin suffered for it.

Anakin is exceptionally skilled at the physical aspects of using the Force and being a Jedi, but when it comes to understanding their core tenants and philosophies, he’s detached. Obi-Wan failed to make Anakin feel at home with the Jedi, likely imitating his own training and that of others with limited thought to how Anakin’s background as a slave might change his perspective on these teachings.

Of course, part of the problem is that the Jedi Code is terribly flawed but that just exacerbates the problem. Obi-Wan is a negative enforcement type of teacher, he critiques Anakin’s actions and scolds him far more than he gives positive feedback and validation that Anakin desperately needs. So Anakin has to get that validation elsewhere, namely from Palpatine. Who on top of the regular kind of grooming and gaslighting, also has probably been spreading a miasma of Darkness around him, encouraging Anakin’s worse thoughts and feelings.

Then, of course, there’s what happened with Shmi, I’m of the opinion that Anakin’s visions, both with Shmi and then Padme, were planted by Palpatine. He showed no other signs of having any kind of prophetic abilities outside those two situations. Actually Palpatine is probably behind Shmi’s death all together, it’s just a little too convenient.

But those machinations don’t change how Obi-Wan was completely dismissive of Anakin’s fears and that led to drastic consequences. Obi-Wan as Anakin’s teacher was a terrible idea, why the Council though a recently knighted and traumatized young man would be the perfect caretaker for a recently freed slave kid is beyond me. It’s like they were setting him up to fail.

As for the actual Fall itself, another headcannon of mine is that Anakin was probably exhausted, he’d been on nonstop campaigns in the war for who knows how long, had been having constant nightmares that left him unable to sleep through the night, had most of his support base taken away except the corrupt one and another who had her own issues keeping her busy, and on top of that was under a ton of stress from being torn between Palpatine and the Jedi Council, Palpatine timed the whole thing just right to get the results he wanted. Unsurprising seeing as he managed to play both sides of the War. By the end Anakin was probably clinging to the Light by his fingertips.

Naruto AU

So, I have this idea for an epic Naruto sequel that I absolutely don't have the ability to actually write. But I was thinking of the politics of the Naruto world and what the actual fallout of the Fourth Shinobi War would be like.

So, the thing is, the politics are an absolute mess, apparently the countries are ruled by the Daimyo, but I don't understand how that could possibly work when all of the military power is centered on the Hidden Villages with the Kage as their overall dictators. The Shinobi Wars were conducted between the villages, there's no mention of the countries themselves actually being involved. Having your entire military act on a mercenary basis from a virtually independent city-state within your country just...cannot possibly work. The Daimyo has to have their own forces, but they're clearly not enough to be fully relied on considering how much power the Hidden Villages seem to have.

The way I see it, during the Warring Clans era, the Daimyo were properly in charge with their own Samurai soldiers and everything while the respective shinobi clans ruled over their own territory and acted as basically feudal lords with mercenary services being offered so long as they didn't go against the Daimyo. The time period was pretty awful for the clans, but the government was solid. Then the Hidden Villages started popping up, which complicated things.

We really didn't get all that much information on how the villages in the other countries ended up happening, but the story of Konoha is pretty clear. The formation of Konoha was probably permitted by the Daimyo because with the clans moving to the village, their respective territories were left basically to be returned to the ruling power, since they weren't there to govern it, the Daimyo could do what they wanted, and start handing it out to new nobles for connections and power. Plus, they no longer had to be careful in picking out which clans they went to for missions and keeping in mind their respective relations, not becoming overly reliant on one and snubbing another, they were all together.

The other villages were almost certainly formed as a reaction to Konoha, maybe for some the villages were the clans themselves coming together like in Fire while with others, maybe the Daimyo themselves formed them out of fear that the Fire Daimyo was consolidating military power with the clans forming a truly fearful army without them fighting each other anymore. Whatever you want to say happened, it led to the Great Hidden Villages forming and the rise to power of the Kage.

This is when things started backfiring on the Daimyo, because suddenly you had these giant, super powerful armies of all their shinobi clans giving their loyalty to a single leader...who isn't them. This led to a century of a very precarious balance of power between the nominal ruler in the Daimyo and the military power of the Kage. Things were largely kept in line due to the Shinobi Wars and the continued reliance on mercenary work on the part of the shinobi. I know that Zetsu is considered to blame for all the blood and violence, or whatever, but I would say that it worked in the Daimyo's favor to have the Shinobi fighting each other, it used to be the squabbling of the clans, but now it was the larger scale wars between the Hidden Villages. Which brings me to my story idea.

The Fourth Shinobi War led to a definite peace between the villages and the creation of a Shinobi Alliance as well as a movement towards ending the shinobi era as it was, especially the child solider aspect. There is no way the Daimyo would have been happy about that; things would have either had to fall apart or the governance of the countries would have to change.

So, the story idea is that the Daimyo start strengthening their samurai armies, who they've allowed to weaken through their reliance on the shinobi, with the intention of making the hidden villages fall in line beneath their command. Maybe the Daimyo of the Great Nations even joined together against their own shinobi. However, you want to play it out, there is a war brewing between the hidden villages and their Daimyo for the power of the country. Now, the Kage are not particularly interested in ruling their entire nations, well, most of them aren’t, Kakashi certainly isn’t, but they are not about the let their way of life be destroyed by selfish, paranoid Daimyo either.

Suna is especially in favor of ousting their Daimyo, relations in Wind have been particularly bad for a while now. The entire Suna invasion is a result of them losing missions from their Daimyo to outside sources, making them desperate. Kiri is probably in favor of making Terumi Mei in charge of everything too after all she did to end the era of the Bloody Mist, no thanks to their own Daimyo. In any case, the main story is a big epic about the shinobi trying to change things in a huge way and the Daimyo trying to stop it, leading to the confrontation that at the end of it means the Kage are going to have to take charge of their actual countries.

The story would follow the conflict, the end of the power of the Daimyo, the rise of the Kage to actual monarchs and the massive societal changes where they end the mercenary work of the shinobi and turn them into genuine military and the like. It would really be a huge undertaking of a story to bounce around the varied politics of the Five Great Nations and the fallout from the other, smaller countries.

There is something kind of hilarious about Kakashi, who doesn’t even want to be the Hokage, having to become the ruler of the entire Land of Fire. I don’t have the understanding of politics, Japanese history, or the world of Naruto to even begin to write something like this, I also don’t have the patience to write actual stories and make sure the characterization of everybody actually works. I just think it’d be a fascinating idea.

I have a few various headcanons that if I could write something like this I would want to include. For one, the Hatake clan isn't actually gone, they're a nomadic clan that acts in packs, every now and again a group will break off and settle down somewhere, which is what happened in Konoha, leading to Kakashi being the last of that group. The greater Hatake come around every few years to try and convince Kakashi to leave a village that has done very little for him, to no avail, then this conflict starts and a new pack breaking off happens, with them deciding to throw their weight behind Kakashi, acting as personal guards since they don't actually trust Konoha.

Of course, the ANBU and jounin corps are all completely loyal to Kakashi, but the Hatake don't know that. I think that would lead to some fun conflict since both parties want what's best for Kakashi, as a fellow Hatake or as their Hokage, but they have different ideas on what that means.

I have another idea where Kakashi and Shizune get married, solely in this context because I think she would make a fantastic Wife and Lady for the Land of Fire. I don't know, I just think she and Kakashi would work really well as a power couple when it comes to the role of Hokage and the politics involved. I normally think Kakashi works best with Yamato/Tenzo, but he would probably hate that kind of role. This kind of story would also really let Hinata shine, I think, with her training as the Hyuuga princess, she and Naruto make their own kind of power couple with international politics.

My thoughts are kind of scattered. Kishimoto created this really interesting world with all sorts of potential that really didn’t get fully explored. That’s why fanfic is so much fun.

Star Wars Thought

So...did Bail Organa basically kidnap Leia? Luke went to his aunt and uncle, which is already kind of suspect because it doesn’t seem like either of them really had much of a connection to Padme or Anakin but at least there’s a legitimate familial connection and I guess Anakin probably lost all rights to decisions over his kids after he became Vader, but I really don’t think Padme would have been all that on board with a.) her children being separated or b.) neither of them going to her family or people she trusts to raise them. She met Owen and Breha all of one time? And I get Bail was probably her friend, but I really don’t think a work colleague would have been all that high on her list of guardians over say...her sister? Her parents? Her handmaidens/best friends? Luke can be explained, he went to nominal family in a place outside the purview of the Emperor where his father couldn’t find him. But Leia? She was raised on a stage in the very heart of the Empire, very obviously not related to Bail or Breha and being given the same title and position as her mother. She could not have possible been in more danger, besides that, no way Bail had any legal right to take her, whatever his intentions, he basically kidnapped her from her proper family who definitely would have done a better job of keeping her away from Vader and the Emperor. Even if Padme’s family were considered too dangerous, Padme’s handmaidens could have easily disappeared outside the Empire. I just can’t stop thinking about how Padme’s agency as a mother was violated by these three men who had very loose connections to her and really didn’t have any right to decide how her children would be raised.

I’m also never going to not be angry that Bail had C-3PO’s memory wiped without any kind of by your leave. He had no right to either of those droids either. The more I think about it the more angry I get.

Spider-Man

You know that one McDonalds triangle meme that’s weirdly popular and tends to show up at least once in every fandom? I saw an MCU one once and was unreasonable enraged by Spidey being put with the McDonalds! McDonalds! McDonalds! corner. Spidey would, depending on just how annoying the kids are, without a doubt be the guy who’d drive up to the window, order a single black coffee and leave.

Naruto Fic Idea

There are a lot of time travel fix it fic, and even a few time travel nothing was wrong fic, and it occurs to me that both perspectives could happen depending on when in the Naruto timeline the person travels back from. So, Obito is dying at the end of the fourth shinobi war and pulls some crazy something or other and travels back in time along with everyone else from Team Minato at the point of their deaths. So Rin and Minato are obviously on board with this, Rin just committed suicide after the Sanbi sealing and Minato just turned his son into a junchuuriki, they both think Obito died at Kanabi and it takes a while for everyone to figure things out. So three out of four are thrilled with the chance to make things right, but then you have Kakashi. Kakashi has lived through all the wars to see all of the hidden villages find real genuine peace and see the end of the shinobi era. As far as he’s concerned despite his regrets and all the pain it took to get there, the word ended up as good as it was going to get big picture, he just died in his sleep, at peace with his incredibly long life, he was probably like 90 something which is an insane age for a shinobi to be, let alone dying of natural causes. Then he wakes up as a ten year old in the middle of war and he is absolutely pissed. Minato and Rin have no idea what’s going on because as far as they know Obito gave them a huge chance but Kakashi is so done with everything, he’s an old man, the word isn’t his responsibility anymore but now it is, and he’s the only one who knows how good it could be if a very particular set of events take place, the peace is strong and sturdy when he dies but it’s beginning is so so fragile, and now it’s all on him to make sure it happens. So, of course, he just wants to rip Obito a new one, the incredibly selfish bastard. No one has any concept of the type of peace Kakashi knows, for Minato and Rin, peace is just Konoha not in active war and Obito doesn’t really care about anything except screwing over Madara and Kaguya. It’s all on Kakashi to make sure they get to what he got to live, but he’s really fricken old and is just so tired.

Doctor Who Headcannon

I have this idea about Susan and why the Doctor already has a granddaughter when he was still in his first incarnation. Like, his partner was much further along in their regenerations so the Doctor ended up having a kid really young. I’m going to say this was kind of a scandal, someone in their first incarnation with someone in, like, their seventh or something. Then Susan’s mother followed in her dad’s footsteps, kinda, only going even further and having a kid not only while still in their first incarnation but then with a non time lord, some other species with a lifespan about as long as a single regeneration. So Susan only has the one life, but it’s several centuries long. That’s a big reason why she left with the Doctor, Gallifrey does not look kindly on mixed species. They seem like the conservative type that way.

Code Geass Problem

There are a lot of things wrong with the alternate history in the Code Geass world, it’s like the authors just threw together a few key points in history they thought were interesting and said they went differently without any real follow through. For one, Britannia apparently exists because the Roman Empire never managed to permanently conquer the British isles, or something. That’s a huge fricken deal, it would have caused everything in the Western Hemisphere to go differently but somehow most of the world apparently progressed a lot like the real world. Napoleon as the first president of the EU or whatever really doesn’t make any sense considering who the man actually was and his beliefs but whatever, not to mention Washington’s Rebellion. How did the thirteen colonies even form when all the empires that took over the Americas are fundamentally different? The BS about Benjamin Franklin always manages to make me incredibly angry, of all the founding fathers they could have chosen to be the traitor they managed to pick one of the least likely candidates. Whatever, I’m not going into all the many problems, but the one thing that really bothers me for reasons I don’t really get, why does pre-invasion Tokyo look like the Tokyo of today? That city only exists as is because the original one was burnt down by the American bombing in WWII and then rebuilt, there’s no reasons for it to look like that when it took a very precise series of events to make it, events that didn’t happen in the Code Geass universe. Nothing is more irritating than ill thought out worldbuilding, especially in products I actually like.

The Yu-Gi-Oh Problem

I’m going to completely ignore Zexal and on.

I really liked Yugioh 5Ds when I was younger, I don’t really know why considering it was kind of a blatant cash grab, but the English theme was really catchy and I really loved Yusei’s voice actor, I might have had a bit of a crush on Yusei in general. I guess I just totally fell for the cheap “edgy” gimmick, which is funny because it isn’t like DM and GX weren’t dark themselves, but whatever. Yusei is definitely the best protagonist of the three. Anyway, my problem.

DM anime happened in, like, the early 2000s, and GX was supposed to be 10 years later with 5Ds a couple decades after that in some nebulous future point. But all of the shows were produced in the mid to late 2000s, so all of the tech looks pretty much the same across the three shows, though 5Ds has some generic futuristic looking stuff that still manages to look out of date. This really doesn’t work with what we now understand of the progression of our tech, by the time of GX everyone should have migrated to touch screens and, like, holo decks and stuff, not still using the clunky duel disks. And who even know by 5Ds time, the digital age is making things pick up steam, fast. None of it makes sense, as driven home by Dark Side of Dimensions when Kaiba and Yugi has their ridiculous high tech VR duel, makes it look like VRAINS should be the series that comes in 10 years instead of old school GX. Whatever.

Fairy Tail Question

Is Lucy’s luck ever really explored? They hint at there being something special, especially around the Tenrou Arc but nothing ever really comes of it. I think it would have been neat to take that plot device and actually go somewhere with it, Celestial Spirit Magic as a whole really could have gotten more development, I think. The idea of it has so much potential and the Heartfilia family history too, a matrilineal line of celestial spirits who may or may not come from nobility in a country where the Princess/Queen is also a celestial spirit mage? (was that ever confirmed in the manga or it is it anime only?) I guess the worldbuilding in general is a lot of wasted potential. Mashima gave us such a wonderful world and then never really explores it, kind of reminds me of the lost potential in Naruto and its political landscape which could have been so interesting and then was ignored in favor of cliche shounen power boosts and big energy/monster fights.

Story Idea

So the Lucifer in Supernatural is just the worst, and so is their Michael, what with the whole trying to possess Sam and Dean and start the apocalypse and what not. But I’ve recently been inspired by this great crossover between Supernatural, Good Omens and Lucifer (TV) where that’s not always the case. Lucifer isn’t actually the epitome of all evil in every interpretation of the Bible anyway, I mean Satan and Lucifer weren’t even always the same person, and besides that, Satan as a term was originally, like, a title for Heaven’s prosecutor or something, back before the Christian concept of Hell was a thing. I’m getting off tract.

Anyway, I was thinking of a world (specifically like an AU of Good Omens because I love those characters) where Lucifer isn’t evil, he’s a prosecutor, and judge and jury of hell, which has more in common with the Underworld than it does with fire and brimstone worst place on Earth just because I don’t want him miserable. Anyway, he’s happily married to his Queen, Lilith, totally devoted and monogamous and has been for millennia. Meanwhile Michael is just kind of living it up on Earth, going around drinking, picking fights, flirting with people and eating pie. Sometimes he drags other angels with him because he thinks they need to chill out more, his favorite victim is a little guy named Castiel. Lucifer and Michael get along with their siblings no problem, they especially like each other a good deal, though they can get on each other’s nerves sometimes. Lucifer often considers Michael a jerk while Michael will say Lucifer can be a bitch.

Get where I’m going with this? I just keep picturing Sam and Dean in their bunker staring at these two alternate versions of beings who’ve given them so much trouble, and it’s just them. I think it’s a fun idea, especially if you threw in Crowley and Aziraphale, like they’re just there being themselves.

Fairy Tail time problem

One thing that’s always buggged me about Fairy Tail is that we never get an entirely clear idea of how much time is passing, like in a general sense. Sure some arcs we know for sure happen within a set amount of time between each other, like Tower of Heaven happens enough time after Phantom Lord and for long enough that the guild is completely finished by the time they get back. Since Tower of Heaven itself probably lasted around a week, at most, that means it had to happen a good few weeks, if not months, after Phantom Lord. However how much time has passed since Lucy joined the guild is never entirely clear, just kind of alluded to. We have to make a few logical assumptions to try and figure it out and rely on the info we get from the side story chapters that make up the filler episodes for context. None of which are completely trustworthy, of course, but it’s the best we got.

This has been bothering me ever since I decided to rewatch some of the earliest episode. Like, how much time passes, exactly between episodes 2 and 3? We know episode 2 has to happen either the next day or the day after the end of episode 1, depending on the travel time between Magnolia and Hargeon. Close in time, however you think of it, but who knows how much time goes by between episodes 2 and 3. Long enough that Lucy manages to find an apartment and get all moved in as well as develop something of a rapport with Natsu and Happy, they certainly seem closer by this point. However it’s still a short enough time period that Erza isn’t back from wherever she’s gone off too. I don’t know, it just kind of bothers me because when I think about it, most of the story arcs seem to happen so close together that you could arguably say not even a full year goes by between the first episode and Tenrou, which I don’t like, I just wish things were a little extended that the arcs take place over a longer period of time.

Naruto Fic Idea

This is just a fluffy thought for a world where nobody died and everything is happy. Sakura has a massive crush on Ino so when Ino comes to her and tells her she likes Sasuke because he’s cool and strong Sakura sees it as a challenge. She then proceeds to give it her all to best Sasuke at everything and prove to Ino that she’s the one who’s cool and strong. Thus the SasuSaku rivalry commences for Ino’s affections.

Ino catches on pretty quickly to Sakura’s intent and falls head over heels but being a little girl, instead of just telling Sakura her feelings, she goads her on, gushing over Sasuke to her so Sakura will go after whatever skill he’s mastering, challenging him. Sasuke has no idea what’s going on, there’s this little pink monster who keeps antagonizing him and their respective blond best friends just goad the whole thing on (in this world Kushina and Mikoto were teammates and made sure their sons had plenty of play dates growing up).

The adults naturally figure the whole thing out and find it suitably adorable. I picture the story being teeth rottingly sweet, like a long one shot going over their whole lives with Sakura and Ino eventually figuring things out and falling in love. I know with this pairing it’s the norm to then pair off the boys but honestly, I adore NaruHina, so we’ll say Karin was brought to Konoha by Kushina as a fellow Uzumaki and raised as a sister to Naruto, so Sasuke can still nab himself an Uzumaki there. Honestly, though, ship the boys however you like or don’t at all, this is about SakuIno at the end of the day.

It’s just a fun thought I had, I just really like the idea of Sakura and Sasuke as rivals, I’ve always thought that if you get rid of her infatuation of him Sakura would find Sasuke really annoying and that a rivalry would come naturally to them. Also the idea of Naruto as the peacemaker of Team 7 is hilarious because we know his temper would get the better of him and he’d fail miserably, poor Kakashi would have just the worst group of little monsters to wrangle.

A Silly Thought

The Guardians during Descendants. Pitch would have been locked up on the Isle of the Lost just like the other villains but since he is a literal alien, the barrier doesn’t work quite right with him. The Guardians take advantage of that. Sandy and Pitch bond to share their magic, creating a loophole in the barrier that allows spirits and only spirits to pass through and use their magic. So Sandy can still send his good dreams to all the kids of the isle and Pitch can still monitor the nightmares of the world, fear has its place after all. Likewise, Tooth can still collect her teeth, North can deliver his presents at the Winter Solstice and Bunny can bring his sweets at the Spring Equinox. Though it’s Jack that really does the most, he personally sees to winter on the Isle, making it the one time of the year that everyone calms down, even the worst of the villains hold back, like an atmosphere of joy that works agains the isle’s natural bleakness. Winter is the favorite season for all the children of the Isle of the Lost.

The Fanfiction Question

The one thing I’ve never been able to understand are those unfinished stories that have no proper explanation as to what happened to the author. The ones that say they haven’t been updated in years but when you read the author’s note it sounds like they are still writing it and plan to regularly update, some even specifically promise an upcoming update that never came. What happened? I get that since it’s fanfiction these stories are being done at the author’s leisure and we can’t expect too much, but is it that hard for the author to write a quick note saying they’ve abandoned the story or they’re going on hiatus? Why just leave it without explanation? The not knowing is one of the most frustrating things about fanfiction, even when compared to the over abundance of horrible out of character stories.

My Fanfic Spider-Man Problem

I love Spider-Man, I love fanfiction, but it’s nearly impossible for me to enjoy fanfiction about Spider-Man. It feels like every one out there is about some infantilized teenage Peter Parker, and I hate it. It’s not that I have a problem with teenage Spidey, though I’ll be honest it’s not my favorite iteration, it’s just that most stories have him as the only teenager in the hero community, which ruins all of his best relationships. One of my favorite comic book friendships is that of Peter Parker and Matt Murdock, Spider-Man and Daredevil are great together, but most fanfic with them has Peter as this goofy innocent kid and Matt as this grizzled adult mentor type, which kind of sucks because they can be a real riot together as friends. I hate having Spidey cut off from all the other superheroes because of the age gap, and that’s not even touching how the Spidey being written in these fanfic is usually completely unrecognizable as Peter Parker. It’s tiresome and makes me want to avoid all marvel fanfiction in general, which sucks. That’s all.