Thoughts - Blog Posts

Kakashi’s Sharingan

So for some reason most of the fandom seems to think Kakashi was stronger with the Sharingan, and yeah, without it there’s no more Kamui or Chidori, but I still feel like not having a constant chakra drain would be vastly superior to those two techniques. Like, it always seemed to me that the Sharingan kind of crippled him, with it he had to constantly be careful of his stamina and chakra reserves, which are the two most important parts of being a shinobi. I feel it was made pretty clear that the main reason Naruto was able to do most of his most impressive feats was because he could throw around chakra like nothing else and just, never got tired really. I always imagined Kakashi having to hold back in fights because he never knew when he’d run out of chakra. That would have limited his ability to practice too, because he had to be careful to not overdo it all the time, which would be a lot shorter of a period for him than other people. Even in taijutsu, pretty much everyone uses chakra to enhance their speed and strength, not to the degree of Sakura and Tsunade, but they all still did it. Kakashi always seemed to be fainting from chakra exhaustion, just, imagine if Kakashi had, instead of adjusting to the Sharingan for the past 16 years, spent that time improving himself overall. The kid was a genius and had started to figure out how to add nature change to the rasengan when he was 10, what would he have been able to do if he could rely on his chakra reserves. I just picture Kakashi being seriously stronger after the fourth war without a Sharingan crippling him anymore.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My Buffy Problem

I like Spuffy as a couple, I intensely dislike Bangel, but I really like Angel as a character. Angel might actually be my favorite character, I just can’t stand him with Buffy, I think they bring out the worst in each other. My problem, why do so many Spuffy stories have to come with Angel bashing? They give plenty of evidence for why they don’t work together that doesn’t take from either character. Why do they have to turn Angel into this huge bully? Why can’t they just have Angel naturally mature away from Buffy? I get he had a lot of problematic behavior around her when he was with her, treating her like one of his former victims minus the killing at the end, but he hadn’t been around humans in decades, he didn’t know how to act around them. Angel’s show is all about him learning to be human, really, Buffy showed him that he could be redeemed, that’s why he’s so attached, but they don’t work. Also, what’s with everyone saying he lost his soul because he had took Buddy’s virginity? It was about her acceptance of him, he felt absolved by her so he could feel truly happy for a brief moment. After Angelus returned, Angel realized he could never be absolved by someone else, he just has to be better on his own and help people. I’m just frustrated by people feeling the need to detract from Angel as a character in order to boost Spuffy, Spuffy doesn’t need it, Spike and Buffy work as a couple on their own because they’re compatible people.

Harry Potter Complaint

Okay, so I don’t even know why I care anymore because I’ve already decided that Harry Potter is overrated and I should be done with it but I can’t stop thinking about how JK Rowling messes up magic in North America. I’m not even going to bother getting into all the issues with what she said about Native American magic, that’s a whole different problem that I don’t have the knowledge to competently talk about. My biggest issue is with the political landscape of the magical community I. The United States. Does she not know anything about how Congress and our branches of government work? There is just not possible way for there to be a magical president before the United States as a country was formed. Also, there would be no magical president at all, is there a magical prime minister in her books? No, there isn’t, there is a Minister of Magic, so it should be the Secretary of Magic. Further, what the hell is with Ivermony somehow being the only school for magic between all of the United States and Canada, does she have any idea how big these two countries are? We aren’t little island Britain that can pull off having one school, we are a massive continent, it’s complete unfeasible even if we did have the same culture of boarding school as they do, which we don’t. If you aren’t going to bother doing any research about the country you’re writing about before you starts describing a secret society in their midsts, don’t write anything.

DC Comics - a thought

So the thing about the BatCat wedding, of which there were so many mistakes but in this particular case my problem is with the wedding party, look, I love Alfred and his relationship with Bruce, but he would not be the best man, he would be his father and whatever role in the wedding that that that would have held. Bruce’s best man would also not have been Dick or any of the other Robins because they are his sons and that is a different relationship.

Bruce’s best man should be Clark with Diana as his second groomsmen, that’s just how it needs to be.

DC Comics - a thought

There’s a tendency in fanfiction that I’ve noticed to kind of de power Superman and Wonder Woman in favor of making Batman and the Batfamily look better. Part of this is probably because of the overwhelming amount of stories centered on Batfamily dynamics and that when writing shock and awe fics people want familiar characters to be their outsider pov, but it just doesn’t work right with Superman and Wonder Woman.

Another part of this is probably because of how the characters get presented in the comics, unfortunately both Superman and Wonder Woman have had to deal with a lot of flip flopping with their powers because the characters were made too powerful and the turn back to try and make them less overpowered has backlashed into making them too weak at times depending on the story. Not to mention how since Batman is part of the trinity that is the face of DC they want to make him equal to the other two within the canon, and it just doesn’t work. I don’t care how smart he is, Batman just cannot handle the problems Superman and Wonder Woman face, he’s only human.

I don’t know, it’s just a common occurrence for a popular character to try and have their real world popularity reflected in the comics, even when it doesn’t work, Batman and Spider-Man have that problem, the latter significantly more so than the former since Batman actually does play a pretty important role to the Justice League, just not quite to the point as he is represented, I think.

Yu-gi-oh! Thought

It occurs to me that Vrains makes sense as a possible future to the first series in the yugioh timeline instead of GX and 5Ds. GX and 5Ds are supposed to be in the future of Yugioh Duel Monsters but the technology doesn’t match with what was shown in the Dark Side of Dimensions movie, Vrains, however, does. So it kind of works timeline wise that DSOD is the basis of a branch in the timeline, GX and 5Ds happen in the timeline where Kaiba never figures out VR tech, ie, DSOD never happens. Meanwhile, Vrains is the future where VR tech does happen, the future post DSOD. No idea where Zexal, Arc-V or Sevens fits into it, just thought it could work.

Fanfic Complaint

Why is Peter Parker infantelized so often in fanfic? When has he ever acted like any of those portrayals in the comics? And I don’t count obvious pandering like certain stories in the post Raimi era.

Peter Parker is a sarcastic asshole who gives ridiculous nicknames to his friends and doesn’t know the meaning of minding your own business. He loves his friends and family deeply and is incredibly overprotective of them. He’s also insanely overpowered with most of the people he’s facing. Spidey isn’t an Avenger who faces galactic wide cosmic threats, though he’ll help out if they need him. Spidey does the every day stuff, street crime and weird criminals with powers who like to dress up and make a show of it all.

And Peter Parker certainly is in no need of Avenger parental figures, he has Aunt May and Robbie Robertson and Curt Connors and even J Jonah Jameson. The entire idea of the gross Dad!Tony and Son!Peter and Superfamily stories make me want to scream.

Hetalia - Hogwarts

I don’t actually have much interest in the Harry Potter fandom, not anymore. I think the entire series is overrated and that there are way too many Hogwarts AUs out there.

That being said, America would absolutely be sorted into Slytherin no matter what he likes to say about him being the Hero.

Suspension of Disbelief in Sci-Fi

The problem with learning anything of significance about history, geography, linguistics, biology and psychology is that it really interferes with the suspension of disbelief you need to enjoy science fiction. Humans are so complicated and so different depending on their culture and region, their language and the time period they exist in that all the alien species that are introduced always seem overly simplified. Not to mention how diverse the planet is depending on where it is, the alien planets are also overly simplified. The thing of it is, I really like sci-fi, I just want more thought given to diversity of alien species and planets.

That Time I Was Reincarnated As A Slime

This was a really great show and I’m looking forward to the next season, I just hate that so many of Rimuru’s subordinates were made to look more human when they got upgraded. Especially the lizard men.

Grown ups

Elders

Parents

Teachers

Idols

Workers

Authority

The adults of society are a lot of things.

But can we really call them our protectors?

Birthdays

Oh how I hate birthdays

Celebrating the day all my problems started?

No thanks

But there's one thing I hate most

"What do you want?"

They ask.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of answers to one simple question.

Books, games, makeup, dolls

And yet, the things I want most in life can't be bought anywhere.

I want to be loved unconditionally

I want to be good enough for someone

I want to have nothing to prove

I want to be able to express my feelings without getting judged

I wanna trust people with my everything

I just wanna be myself

But

Those are never the words that come out of my mouth.

Kinda thinking about posting pics and descriptions of my four OC's. What does everyone think about it? I'm just worried people won't like them much but I've been building up and changing all four characters since I was six so...😆😆😬

bsd abilities are weird. like i get dazai or sigma but how did KAIJI find out he had an ability. WHAT WAS BRO DOING. DID HE SUDDENLY GET THE URGE TO CREATE A LEMON SHAPED BOMB AND THEN WHEN IT DIDNT KILL HIM HE WAS LIKE