| | Unpopular opinion: I really, really dislike the idea of the Mangekyou Sharingan. Or in fact, all of the super-duper powers in Naruto in recent years. Like, oh shit this guy is really powerful and then three chapters later LOL JK HERE'S SOMETHING WORSE. I know that greater enemies and hence, greater powers up the ante, the coolness factor, the "what's gonna happen?!" factor, and up the stakes somehow. But at one point it just becomes ridiculous and tiring. I remember experiencing that kind of "super power fatigue" when I watched Dragon Ball, when I was still following X-Men. The story becomes less about the characters and more about throwing this ridiculously powerful supervillain and how they need to make themselves stronger to face them and save the world. Fuck that, I don't give a shit, they can destroy the world. I have no stake in you. There's always something around the corner that will wanna do that for some reason anyway. The longer the series, the more powerful the enemies become, the more I don't give a fuck. MATHEMATICS.In the case of the really extended series like Naruto, the desire to make things cooler and more actiony definitely has an impact on character development and their motivations. ----------I know Sasuke is my punching bag character---BECAUSE I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY EVERYONE LOVES HIM SO MUCH. It's my personal opinion that the best outcome for him is to become an onion farmer and no one would give a fuck. It's further exacerbated that he becomes more and more stupidly powerful, and everyone's just shaking their heads and going, "I STILL LOVE HIM." Why? He was never particularly nice when he WAS with Team 7, and I don't see him going back. So to express that love...Sakura wants to kill him? Naruto wants to drag him back to Konoha?WHY?!I don't get it. This character has no redeeming qualities anymore, but Kishi keeps on hitting us over the head with repeated insistence that Sasuke is still a person worthy of love and redemption. Jesus. Either fucking make him irredeemable or give us a reason why we should root for Sasuke to come back. You can't have it both!(I know, I know, Sasuke shows bits of humanity here and there. However, weighed with all the shitastic things he's done, I don't think I should give those bits too much credit.)Look, I know it's a shounen anime about I don't know, inter-dimensional super powers via magic red eye, but can we please have civilization! These characters' motivations should make sense! But in the desire to make supah-powerful villains, now all we've been reduced to are two MUAHAHAHA-ING assholes who just want to wipe the world dead for some stupid reason. Lazy writing, Kishi. Fucking lazy writing. I mean, just look at Obito's motivations to destroy everything. Sure, Rin's death and the circumstances surrounding it was tragic but.....overacting much? God, Uchihas are the fucking WORST aren't they? Whiny asswipes. Kakashi has had a worse life than him but I don't see him being such a little bitch about it. It's just so frustrating. I hate this emo bullshit. Maybe because I'm from a third world country and we see a lot of pain on a normal basis, and it extends in how I see fiction. So Kakashi didn't keep his promise, and had to kill Rin. He probably has REASONS. No need to lose your fucking top over it, Obito.(I know that team members have a strong bond with each other. I liken that to the bond soldiers share. But honestly, the way Kishi make use of that bond and its repercussions are still ridic to me.)Really good villains should have motivations you could understand, too. I'm strugggling to find it.Now ten-tails is out in Naruto 613 and it looks like a rejected angel from Neon Genesis Evangelion.I remember why I abandoned the fandom in the first place. -----------The truth is, my self-assignment of catching up with canon started with someone reviewing my COMEDY fanfic and pointing out that Chidori can only be done by people with a natural affinity with lightning. Which Sakura doesn't have, because Kakashi and Sasuke are Very Special Boys.I mean, I know that, and planned to write my way around it, but me being the typical perfectionist on canon detail, I was suddenly gripped with anxiety of reviewers just pointing out holes on the jutsus and the skills in Naruto. I AM NOT HERE FOR THAT. I really wanted to catch up with canon but I'm afraid it's having the opposite effect on me. I fucking hate the canon. I hate having to learn all these fucking superpowers and the angsty ways they had to come by it. It's like studying for a subject I don't like. I'm glad there's a Naruto wiki to tell me what's what, but still. Two to three years ago, my brother was playing the Naruto game on our PS3 and no lie, I said, "That fucking series is still fucking on?" and laughed. I guess I had forgotten how bleh I felt about Shippuden as a whole, because I loved pre-Shippuden so much (seriously idgaf about all the characters that were introduced only in Shippuden with the exception of Yamato and Sai). I loved the characters in the first part, man! And catching up with canon is so, so, tiring. To be honest, it's draining me of the enthusiasm of being back in this fandom again. So I have the choice of: a) Just doing whatever the fuck I want in fanfic and ignore the reviewers who want super-correct details on the jutsus. Y'all can watch the anime for that.b) Stay as close to canon and hate everything I know I'm rambling, and I don't really give a crap about whether I have correct opinions on Sasuke (I know fandom loves him like whoa). But I'm back in this fandom to Fucking shounen anime, man. Seriously. I was re-reading one of my most favorite short story compilations entitled Love Stories this morning. It was edited by Rosamunde Pilcher, one of the really good love story writers out there. Anyway, one of my favorites was this story entitled First Love: A Confession, written by one Frank Harris. I read this story as a teenager, and I fell in love with it. Basically the story is there is a young man who is going out with a woman and they kinda fooled themselves into thinking that they were in love, but the interest tapered off. Now the woman has a younger sister who's around fourteen years old (you know where I am going with this LOL) and it's obvious in this story that she's infatuated with the young man. After the older sister begins blowing him off, he takes the younger one out to see a play (this is Victorian era, turn-of- the-century stuff). They go home, they tease each other, and he kisses her (as a joke), feels bad about it, and backs off. He then doesn't see the girl even if he writes her letters trying to explain what he did. The mom swears up and down that her daughter received the letters, but after several tries and no replies from her, the young man cuts off communication altogether. Fast-forward four years later, and the man is married. He and his wife attends a ball and his friend insists on introducing him to the most beautiful girl in the party. He doesn't recognize her at all, but of course it's the girl (early on in the story he mentions how unremarkable the younger sister's looks are). The girl teases him about it, and they catch up. It's then revealed that she never received his letters (the mom disapproved apparently), and that she was heartbroken, but resolved to regain her dignity and pride, since she was convinced he was just playing around with her. She then confesses that she was in love with him, and that she used to hug his jacket when he wasn't around, because she hated her sister play-acting love. So...the guy is just dumbstruck, and inside he's so regretful that they didn't get to be together. 'Cause, you know, she's a BABE now. Aaaaaand...in fairness to him, they really did have a genuine connection with each other. The girl then begins to tease him by wondering what she ever saw in him, and he retaliates by teasing that she is "challenging him again," the same joke that he made before he kissed her all those years ago. She goes red in the face and flounces off, and their love story ends. And then....I did a really stupid thing and googled the author, Frank Harris. Turns out his writings are considered porn during his time as he wrote about a lot of his sex escapadesJust......WHY. How can someone who wrote something so delicate and sweet be a porn writer... is this some kind of sign from the Naruto fanfic gods about Kakashi or what? LOL.Also, he looks like this. Mood:weird
I suppose the delay was inevitable. I just had a spurt of creativity that produced the first six chapters of Hanabira, that one-shot and the idea for Kakashi Getting Married. But now I'm gripped with anxiety again (sigh). What you must know is that being out of the fandom loop for a few years does have an effect on my writing. I'm about to embark on the more plotty side of Hanabira but as a fanfic writer, I do like keeping as close to the source material as much as possible. As a reader, nothing takes me out of the story quite like not-quite-canon details. As a writer, I do try to avoid that.But....DO YOU GUYS REALIZE HOW MANY JUTSUS THERE ARE IN NARUTO IT'S JUST /LSDJLSDFJS.That's why the 7k word chapter of Hanabira is on hold, because I'm trying to refresh my Naruto canon and my slow internet connection is not helping much! On the positive side, I am falling in love with Sakura (I really am in the fandom for Sakura and not Kakashi lolz) all over again and it is a good feeling. But for now.....delays. But my 2-week vacation is coming up, and I do plan on focusing exclusively on writing (holiday and family obligations aside)I'm thinking of hosting a fanfic request thread over at 
kakasaku. Will mull about it. Would you want one?Thanks for your patience, reader.Mood:anxious
Guh there are too many great KakaSaku fics out there, don't know where to start! But I am seriously inspired!Tags:kakasakuMood:chipper
What the hell Naruto 611! I really thought NaruSaku was endgame! And then, out of nowhere.....NaruHina. O_oOh well, whatever. My OTP (KakaSaku) is too cracky to even contemplate canon. Nice (sexual) healing moment there, though. Yes! I'm back to writing fanfic! My friends are thrilled (very sweet, considering Naruto isn't their fandom), I'm thrilled, my boyfriend is thrilled (although he is more of a fantasy league kind of dude). I've written a bit of fic here and there, usually one-shots and drabbles, but I lost steam somewhere around 2006....why? I graduated from uni, someone I loved dearly died, then I fell in love, lost friends along the way, then I had to focus on my career trajectory......you know, life stuff. So other than the odd oneshot here and there, I really haven't touched fanfic for a while. I guess I had that weird thing where I wanted to be a ~writer and felt like being involved in fanfic sapped my energy for original fic, but I don't believe that now. So! Hanabira! Let me talk about it for my only reader out there (probably my boyfriend...)I had a very specific intent in mind to go back to writing fic. I was looking through my old ships and a lot of them don't work for me anymore. My Sabe/Obi-Wan love is still strong, because the fandom community had been wonderful and shaped Sabe into such a glorious character. Dean/Jo is depressing because Jo is dead. Peter/Claire turned out to be related and the Heroes series just took a nosedive after the first season. Dan/Blair had such a promising start on GG and then the stupid happened, so I'm a bit turned off by them right now. Maybe after the series is done I can take a shot at writing them again. And then.....KakaSaku. ( Read more...Collapse )Tags:kakasaku, narutoMood:determined
So-- The Kids Stay in the Picture. I loved this episode. I also hated this episode. I loved-hated this episode, in equal parts. While this may be disappointing on the Dan/Blair side, I do think it's not all what it seems. Dan's speech about Blair to Chuck--oh God, the stuff of great romance movies, like that scene from My Sassy Girl when Gyeon-Woo tells the Girl's prospective suitor about the things she likes and dislikes. Unlike what other people say, I don't think Dan is romanticizing Blair at this point--he's known her too long (in hostility, too) to do that. For me, he realized that the scheming and the takedowns aren't her, it's something she does when she's wounded and needs to defend herself. Which she does not do the whole time they've been hanging out...because, guess what, she didn't need to (well, except during their time at W). Here's the exchange in full: Chuck: ...whoever she kissed, seemed to have an effect. "Life-changing" were the words she used. Dan: (slightly dumbfounded) Uh--ah--well, a life-changing kiss may not be something you wanna mess with. Chuck: What are you trying to say, Humphrey?Dan: With you, she was...she was always caught up in schemes and takedowns. That's not...that's not really her. She's intelligent. She's intuitive. She's...you know...she..she weeps when she watches Nights of Cabiria. Chuck: How do you know that?Dan: Uh...Serena...told me. But listen...the point is, if Blair's happy, I mean, maybe you should let her be. Chuck: You care more about Blair's happiness than I knew.This scene for me just underlines the essential difference between Chuck and Dan.( Read more...Collapse ) I've been really inspired with all the DA2 fanmixes lately, so here's one dedicated to the first pairing I did in the game: Hawke/Fenris. I tried to capture the whole arc of their relationship from start to end. I kind of did it with a mage!Hawke in mind, because admit it, it makes the angst a lot more delicious that way!And onto the fanmix!
( i will never let you downCollapse ) DOWNLOAD!Tags:dragon age, fanmix Title: Open RoadAuthor: sugarcagesDisclaimer: Playing in Kripke's sandbox, as always. Rating: GWord Count: 276Characters/Pairings: Dean/JoSummary: She hears the open road call out to her time and again. Prompt Table: Is here. At five years old, she stands outside the Roadhouse, staring at Nebraska's blue and gold horizon, summer at its finest. Daddy just bought her a new pair of boots, real leather ones, just like his, only hers are bright and stiff while his are worn and soft. She puts them on right just when Mommy's at her busiest and sneaks out. She likes hearing the crunch of gravel under her feet, the opening notes of an open road and a five year old's adventure. At ten years old, the leather shoes stand in one lonely corner of her room, begging to be forgotten and thrown out, but Jo quite can't bring herself to it. Mom is crying again in her half-empty room and the bar is hollow and abandoned. If she sits still long enough, it almost seems like a haunted house, nothing but ghost-women living here. Instead she stands up and rushes downstairs, slams the bar's front door open as hard as she could, as if the noise could reassure her of her still-living state. She pads barefoot down past the porch, stands at the mouth of the road, uncaring of broken beer bottles and sharp pebbles. She stares out in the Nebraska horizon, weeds gently dancing in the wind. She breaks into a run, not quite knowing if it's still the open road she wants, or escape from the silence. She comes back home with bloodied feet, stays in bed for over a week. At twenty-one, she hears a crunch of gravel, a slam of the door. She readies her shotgun, sitting next to her small leather boots. At twenty-one, she meets Dean Winchester.Tags:dean/jo, fanfic, spn30, supernatural Previous 10 EntriesTop of Page |
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