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mira--mira · 3 years

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One obvious for the ask game. The main protagonist; Naruto Uzumaki and Izuku Midoriya.

@shiryusamarkanda it’s so nice to hear from you again! <3

I totally didn’t forget to post this and had it fully finished in my drafts for days...totally.

Naruto

What I love about them:

Naruto's a bratty kid who’s not afraid to speak up and challenge something he thinks is "wrong". This, of course, is part 1 Naruto. I actually like when he's a bit insensitive without being explicitly malicious bc its very fitting for his background/how he grew up but also gives him a clear path forward as he learns how to work as a team/starts to grow. It wasn’t exactly a smart move, but I really liked how he continued to challenge Zabuza in the Wave Arc saying “he’s still my enemy” after Kakashi told him to back off. This is all good and strong characterization that, to me, was more often endearing than it wasn’t. Naruto had goals and a purpose and in early Naruto that was still clear.

What I hate about them:

Part 2 (Shippuden) Naruto. There’s a lot that goes into this but the core deviation is getting away from the underdog story. In Shippuden Naruto is the son of the 4th, the Child of Prophecy, a reincarnation of the Sage of Six Path’s kid, makes friends with Kurama, and has the most OP power of the them all: Talk no Jutsu. What makes all of this even worse is Naruto went from a loveable bratty kid to an insufferable messiah figure. To be “perfect” his natural personality is shorn down until he’s only allowed occasional “stupid” mistakes rather than mistakes that emerge from his characterization. This also makes his ideological “wins” with villains...completely meaningless. Shippuden Naruto doesn’t really...have beliefs. He wants to be hokage and bring Sasuke back to the village. “Being hokage” was fine as a kid but I expected the progression into shippuden to be “what kind of hokage do I want to be?” This seemed natural bc we get in the Wave arc Naruto pushing against “what a shinobi is supposed to be: a tool” from Haku and declaring he’d make his own ninja way. Flashforward to the chunin arcs: hates Orochimaru for messing with Sasuke (esp when he eventually leaves to join him) and Neji for treating Hinata the way he did until he learned more about the Hyuga before declaring it wasn’t fair and you had to fight against fate and destiny. Tsunade’s arc was more about reemphasizing the village was something worth protecting and the Sasuke retrieval arc, while focused on Sasuke, at least kept up this theme. But these moments of growth are only alluded to in shippuden and by the time the war arc and ending come around...nothing changes. Naruto didn’t upset the status quo, he only maintained it. And once that ending was established it was a lot easier to go back and pick out exactly when his characterization started to fall through and the weird messiah figure took over instead. Part of this, imo, is the focus of his ultimate goal being “bring Sasuke back to the village” rather than understand what Sasuke is doing/why he’s doing it and then deciding to help him or stop him.

Favorite Moment/Quote:

“You’re cute when you’re chubby” [in reference to the frog purse]

I really love the quiet moments Naruto has and watching him live out his daily life. The frog purse is absolutely adorable and I love seeing it crop up time and time again. A close second is when Gai kicks Jiraiya in the face and, a short time later, offers Naruto the green tracksuit which he’s appreciative of.

What I would like to see more focus on:

In Part 2 Naruto having a long-term goal alongside bringing Sasuke back to the village or trying to seriously think about why Sasuke does what he does and how that would potentially affect the plot. If I could go back to the very start, keeping the actual heart and intent of an underdog ninja story rather than everything turning into superpowered mecha/kaiju battles and aliens from space this is the big point that I’d want to address. In general, I really like fics that focus on training and give him a range of jutsu besides spamming shadow clones and rasengan variants. I’ve said this before, but if Naruto really wants to keep the “number 1 unpredictable ninja” moniker, learning a variety of small, diverse jutsu and using them in interesting/creative ways would be the way to go rather than spamming the aforementioned two. I also really like fics that buckle down and just go ham and create their own variety of jutsu, especially if it’s small practical jutsu rather than the latest and greatest OP Power #839281 kind of jutsu.

What I would like to see less focus on:

The messiah figure. Talk no Jutsu. The obsession with having a morally pure hero in a world that routinely employed child soldiers and put them in war. I understand Naruto was a shonen manga first and foremost but like...this was the setting/world Kishimoto decided on having. However, I will say some fics take it to far on the other extreme for my taste, creating a edgy nihilistic Naruto that hates everyone and everything.

Favorite pairing with:

Uhh...I don’t actually have a strong feeling for this one LOL. The most I’ve read has been SasuNaru (Sasuke x Naruto) because I’ve found really interesting set-ups. I like the ship and it does have a decent amount of backing in canon but it’s the little moments (or my ability to see possible little moments) that really make or break a ship for me. SasuNaru is all Big Declarations and I struggle to see how they’d actually settle down post Shippuden time into something sustainable. My favorite iterations of the ship is focused when they’re genin age and have a better relationship...but then I recognize that this is getting closer and closer to Hashimada. The other big things I run into with shipping Naruto with Sasuke is 1. Sasuke needs a shit ton of therapy/willingness to process his family related trauma and 2. Naruto needs a good support network/family outside of a romantic partner because it personally makes me uncomfortable to read ‘you’re my one and only’ (here being: I have no other friends, family, loved ones outside of you). It’s a ship that can work but it’s not my personal OTP.

Favorite friendship:

Canon/OoT - Naruto & Sakura

I do have a softspot for fics where Naruto realizes his crush on Sakura is actually a desire to have friends/someone to care about him and then they do become close. In canon Sasuke was clearly the favorite of Kakashi (if chunin arc is kept the same/similar and he takes him away for the month to train) I really like Naruto and Sakura sticking together and trying to help each other. They’re both loud and can wind each other up but Naruto can help Sakura relax a bit from her rigid view of herself and she can help keep him on track/encourage him.

NOTP:

Again, no real strong opinions here. Probably harems? I remember seeing a lot of those a couple years ago and I fundamentally dislike the harem so it will never be ‘done well’ to my personal taste.

Favorite headcanon:

Naruto is smart, he just needs things to be explained in a way he can understand.

I’m not a fan of ‘he’s the smartest person in the entire world’ trope but Naruto is creative, he created the oiroke jutsu before he graduated to genin and has a lot of stubborn determination. He’s just really bad at typical ‘book learning’ and traditional testing and he’s not a genius/prodigy like Sasuke or Neji.

Read line for BNHA manga spoilers

Izuku

What I love about them:

He’s such a smart kid and while he’s unsure/insecure about himself he still does his best. Honestly the premise of BNHA is amazing and I was so excited to watch this little quirky (heh) boy do his best and outthink heroes, utilizing his intelligence and knowledge of quirks. I really love early Izuku and how he has to approach situations from a different angle bc he grew up quirkless/can’t properly handle OFA. The sports festival arc remains one of my personal favorites and really showed his ingenuity. I also really love that Izuku is openly emotional, he cries, he gets super happy about things, he’s angry, he’s sad, etc.

What I hate about them:

Why do stories insist on calling themselves “underdogs” when for a majority of the time, they’re not? Or not as much as they would be from the original premise? Look, TDP came about exactly bc BNHA was billed as ‘quirkless boy becomes number 1 hero’ it changed rapidly into ‘Izuku gets the strongest quirk but can’t control it’ and while I was...disappointed with that, it happened so quickly I wasn’t really upset. Fast forward to apparently OFA has...what seven(?) quirks inside it and I just...it’s frustrating. Even more the longer we go the more Izuku strays away from a character that is forced to use his intelligence and creatively outthink his opponents and instead becomes...I just have to hit him harder! The Muscular fight already inched towards this but the Overhaul fight just felt like Super Shonen Smack-down 728329. Which, isn’t an inherent problem, it just doesn’t match up to the expectations I had about BNHA I had at the start and how I hoped the series would go. For a character trait that I hate: Izuku is stupidly self-sacrificing. It makes sense with his character but he shoots beyond what is safe and reasonable and I wish there would be more internal emphasis on the question “is it better to save one person today if it meant I couldn’t save ten people tomorrow?” I think he’d choose the former or forsake the question altogether (we touched briefly on this during the overhaul arc with Eri) but I think it’s a serious question needs to be touched on (or I just need to go back and rewatch things again LOL)

Favorite Moment/Quote:

See entire sports festival arc. I don’t really have a favorite moment because I love the entire arc and we get so much out of it.

What I would like to see more focus on:

Quirkless Izuku. There’s already a lot of fics, but I really do love them. It deviates a bit, but I do like the creativity of giving Izuku his own unique quirk and then exploring what he can do with that/how it changes canon. Really I want Izuku to keep his original characterization and not trade his smarts for more punching power or deus ex machinas for quirks hidden inside of OFA. If OFA!Izuku is kept, I like story ideas where he still has to rely on means outside of his quirk. Preferably this is isn’t because he injuries himself so much, but I like toying with the idea that Izuku never gets OFA to All Might’s level so he really does have to make the quirk his own and still rely heavily on his intelligence and quirk journals to become the number 1.

What I would like to see less focus on:

Quirks hidden inside OFA. Strength should have been enough, it was already billed as the most powerful quirk of all. I know this is a common theme for shonen stories, and I don’t mean to harp specifically on Izuku, but again the premise of BNHA was an underdog story.

Favorite pairing with:

Tododeku (Todoroki Shouto x Midoriya Izuku)

Friends to lover and battle couples lads, I am weak to them. I like the contrast between their personalities as well as origins (Shouto being the number 2′s (now 1) kid and Izuku from a quiet civilian background). At the end of the sports festival arc both of them are extremely well characterized and it’s easy for me to imagine how their relationship progresses from there and how they can support each other and help each other grow. It’s a very sweet and wholesome ship the way I write and read it and it’s v cute.

Favorite friendship:

Canon- Midoriya Izuku & Uraraka Ochaco & Iida Tenya

I really like the core trio and think their interactions are really sweet. They balance each other out well and their friendship was immediately believable to me. I also like later when Tsuyu and Shouto start to get included in the group and out of the “main” core friends I’m endlessly entertained whenever Izuku and Tokoyami interact with one another. (This is also because I love my bird son, but you know.)

TDP - Midoriya Izuku & Ashido Mina or Midoriya Izuku & Hatsume Mei

Really, I love all of TDP’s kiddos interactions. Their chemistry is one of my favorite things about the fic and all the villain school kiddos meshed really well and had hilarious interactions. Mina and Mei are my faves but just barely. Mina came out of left field for the fic but she plays a similar role that Ochaco does in canon as a usual source of positivity (but unlike Ochaco with additional chaos). She’s Izuku’s first real friend even before starting HIVVE and wouldn’t hesitate to call Izuku her cousin as she views him as family. In return, Mina’s someone Izuku can completely count and depend on if necessary. Mei is...Mei. Izuku is her best “useful customer” and it’s actually terrifying how similar their thoughts are, just Mei has an (un)healthy dose of Hazmat’s insanity and her own business acumen added into the mix. They have slightly different fields of interest but are intellectual equals that work well together and that’s something new to both of them.

NOTP:

Bakudeku (Bakugo Katsuki x Midoriya Izuku)

It’s unhealthy. Unless it’s an AU that changes what the start of their relationship is like, Bakugo and Izuku will always have a toxic friendship to me and I can’t ever see them in a healthy relationship. Both of them have a lot to learn and I am of the opinion that Bakugo should get the opportunity to grow and become a good person and leave behind his past as a bully. However, I’m also of the opinion that no matter how good of a person a bully becomes their victim is never required to absolve them of past wrongdoings. Izuku and Bakugo were friends once, their relationship turned toxic, and now it’s in the interest of both of them to grow apart from one another. I even hesitate to really say they’ll be friends again because the early characterization of their relationship was so imbalanced to me, but for the right author and the right work I may see them being on good terms. It’s still a romantic relationship that I dislike.

Favorite headcanon:

Crack headcanon? Izuku does have a natural quirk, the force of his tears is clearly superpowered 😂 Regular headcanon, (that is canon in TDP and kindaaa in regular canon(?)) when Izuku gets really engrossed in a super stressful fight he focuses on what will work rather than what is moral. It has...mixed results.

For the ask game.

#shiryusamarkanda #naruto #bnha #mha #naruto uzumaki #izuku midoriya #my fics #the diverging path #out of time #spoliers #bnha manga spoliers #asks

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raayllum · 4 years

Text

also i’ve been wanting to make this post for a while, but have been waiting to have some more time and be in a place where i felt like i could emotionally handle it, but anyway

it’s been almost a month since the allegations came out, and while i made the choice to not follow it (at least not until there’s some kind of Resolution, and it’s not like i was following any behind the scenes stuff / was on twitter before, either) nor blog about it, mostly for my own sake, i wanted to talk about it now.

i’ve been in fandoms for a long time now, and have somehow?? been a bigger blog in a couple of them. this fandom i suppose is one of them, even if it never feels that way to me. engaging in discourse over anything can be exhausting, especially when so much of it should be automatic

yes, i believe the women. there’s no reason for them to lie and while human subjectivity can influence things, harm was caused and unintentional harm is still harm caused that deserves to be acknowledged and rectified.

yes, aaron should have apologized. my reservations about the situation was always due to a lack of resolution (aka largely where we are now) and i don’t think this part is necessarily going to get better. aaron should of course still apologize (as again, no matter how unintentional harm may be, it’s still harmful) but i know now it would ring beyond hollow, so it’s not a priority

concrete change at wonderstorm, to ensure things like this don’t happen again in a way that’s more verifiable and indicative of behaviour, is, and i’m glad that things seem to be heading in that direction as it’s been said they’re looking to add hr capacity, although i’m waiting for that to be verified.

but none of that is admittedly, ultimately, my priority, because i don’t actually have control over any of that, and i never did. what i can control, and why i chose to keep my blog largely out of it, is because my main priority is you guys.

having a good, supportive fandom community has always been one of the most important things to me in all my times in fandom. i like to think i’ve helped make this one a good one, too. the rayllum / tdp fandom has been one of the best from the very start, as i’ve been here since before the show even dropped (it’s animated and had elves and dragons and assassins, i know what i’m like). it’s been heartwrenching to see how torn up people became, even if many like myself didn’t post the details of it while we wrestled with everything.

i’m not gonna lie, my mental health took a hard hit from this in early november. never had my morals been so twisted inside, and it took me six days minimum to break out of a cycle of “wow i love this show so much fuck anything that tries to take it away from me like a shitty creator” which i would then burn through and feel like complete crap for most of my night. i didn’t share it at the time bc i wanted to work through it on my own, first, and my emotional process wasn’t anybody else’s business, but i’m sharing it now

because it’s okay if it still gets to you sometimes. it still gets to me. and maybe it’s foolish or a little concerning that something that’s ultimately just a tv show could take such a toll on my mental health, but it’s true. this show was perfect in every way for more than a year, and easily one of the things that have brought me the most happiness since it aired. it’s been hard adjusting to this thing that was perfect is now no longer because of what went on behind the scenes.

and more than that, i know i was upset for valid reasons. questions of accountability and support, and if i could still write meta because wouldn’t that be praising, wouldn’t that be appreciation, of someone who’s terrible but talented, somehow? can death of the author be applicable. why should i let someone take away something i enjoy, too. questions of how to proceed and how to work through everything emotionally and how much should i involve myself, why should i involve myself, whose mental health do i put first (bc my own certainly didn’t feel the most important), what do i deserve, etc. etc.

like i said. i was pretty fucked up for at least six days, and it took another week at least for things to clear up. i bounced from being excited about the new season for a while, and then less than a week before s3 i suddenly became extremely apathetic. there was still excitement, of course, and maybe a bit of shock that it was so soon?? i still don’t know exactly what it was about, but that’s okay, even disregarding that it’s gone now, because it’s okay to not always know what you’re feeling, and it’s important to let yourself feel those things anyway

sometimes my morals came rearing up and my head starts trying to speculate and connect all the dots and figure out what went wrong and how terribly with information i didn’t / don’t have and a situation i have no effect over, and i had to learn to let it go. i still have to, sometimes. sometimes it’s hard to feel happy about the show and not feel guilty that i’m taking enjoyment out of something that caused others pain. sometimes i’m frustrated that i’m feeling guilty and therefore causing myself pain.

and then i remind myself that if i wouldn’t judge someone for whatever decision they make regarding their enjoyment/consumption (or therefore lack of) of the show, whether friend or stranger, than i shouldn’t judge myself poorly for it either

i’m a flawed person like any other and there are many times i’ve messed up or haven’t phrased things as well as i should have. i’m sure some of those times are even in this post!

but basically, this is just a very long winded way of saying it’s okay to still be bothered, and i hope this post can help you work through it. if you want to reach out to me for anything, whether related to this or just for TDP fun times and cute headcanons, that’s okay too

i’m here to help you feel better, because it helps me feel better too. i’m still so very glad that this is our community and that it’s as open and loving as it is.

thank you for always listening

#dragons rambles #i didn't expect this to be so long but #i've been thinking about this post for a while now #and i wasn't even sure if i wanted to post it #bc again - keeping this blog free yknow #questions of how much responsibility or duty i have to say anything #and what to say if that's the case #how much can you judge what you don't know #can you ever know Enough #but i wanted to get this out at one point and #again another good step in letting it go maybe?#tdpforworkers #bc i think i'm gonna make that my tag for anything like this in the future #altho i am very much hoping this is the last of it in more ways than one #but yeah #that's kinda all i got #thanks guys #this is arguably the most personal i've ever gotten online and whoo boi

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