I'm honestly surprised that there are so many people still using "fairness" as one of their biggest criteria for a good shinobi. If a ninja learns something from a teacher, has a teammate help him/her (despite being one of the greatest rules for ninja), or pretty much has anything that was not made from scratch, it's disregarded for not being "fair". The whole thing was probably born from the idea of "working your hardest" to be number 1 or succeeding because of natural talent/genetic abilities alone. But now it's gone so far that you can find it in almost any thread concerning a character nowadays over simple matters. I'll try to look it through your way a bit:
Take Naruto for example. He's constantly dragged down by people saying that Kurama is his way out of the playing field and that he doesn't deserve it's power. But was he not one of the best (if not THE best) host for the Kyuubi? Despite bearing the burden of being a Jinchuriki for most of his life and losing his family to the Kyuubi, Naruto was mature enough to promise him that he'd personally take his undying hatred away. The guy even had to go through the process of taming the Kyuubi (w/ a little help), so it's not like he didn't do anything for his current power anyways.
Sasuke relying on Taka's assistance is also looked down upon quite a bit. This seems a bit weird to me since Sasuke himself was smart enough to rally a team up. He obviously did a good job at picking them out, since they were able to get him out of pretty nasty situations before. Getting the aid of others doesn't really hurt his reputation much considering he's the source of it.
I don't want to center the discussion on these 2; both are merely examples. The point I'm trying to make is that it's not only about the opportunities you get, but how you go about using those choices. Personally I think that most of the time, it's just a weak remark to attack a character as a last resort. I don't want to limit the whole population to those users though, so I made a thread on what you think about it.
Do you think that people use these terms too loosely? Or at least that their accomplishments are unfairly degraded due to these simple ideas? I don't really flame many people, so you can safely disagree with me if you think I'm wrong.
Take Naruto for example. He's constantly dragged down by people saying that Kurama is his way out of the playing field and that he doesn't deserve it's power. But was he not one of the best (if not THE best) host for the Kyuubi? Despite bearing the burden of being a Jinchuriki for most of his life and losing his family to the Kyuubi, Naruto was mature enough to promise him that he'd personally take his undying hatred away. The guy even had to go through the process of taming the Kyuubi (w/ a little help), so it's not like he didn't do anything for his current power anyways.
Sasuke relying on Taka's assistance is also looked down upon quite a bit. This seems a bit weird to me since Sasuke himself was smart enough to rally a team up. He obviously did a good job at picking them out, since they were able to get him out of pretty nasty situations before. Getting the aid of others doesn't really hurt his reputation much considering he's the source of it.
I don't want to center the discussion on these 2; both are merely examples. The point I'm trying to make is that it's not only about the opportunities you get, but how you go about using those choices. Personally I think that most of the time, it's just a weak remark to attack a character as a last resort. I don't want to limit the whole population to those users though, so I made a thread on what you think about it.
Do you think that people use these terms too loosely? Or at least that their accomplishments are unfairly degraded due to these simple ideas? I don't really flame many people, so you can safely disagree with me if you think I'm wrong.