At the end of Naruto, it should have been simple . . .
A tired author takes a break of a few years while the team he worked with puts out supporting material such as databooks, games and light novels to give us more of that world. Then the author comes back and does a serious run of episodic mini-series looking into the world of Naruto. Short runs of the ages of Hashirama, Hanzo, Hiruzen and so on. Precisely what fans wish for.
Unfortunately, capitalism is a thing and it seemed that Naruto as a franchise was too popular and well respected to simply go quiet for a few years. The iron was hot, there was striking to be done. With Bleach having already given the idea, next generations was done and the rest is as it is - no matter how you see it.
Still, fans request prequels or prequelic works and even if they come after Boruto, they should work out quite well, so why not? Well, that may be our fault . . .
It seems to me that Naruto is first and foremost a philosophical/humanistic series. However, a large section of the fandom revolves around arena battles. Whatever balance that may be between combative/judgemental mortality and a multi-faceted world of Naruto, it is what it is - at least currently. Thus large numbers of the fandom directly correlate character quality with battle ability - we are invested in our beliefs of the strengths of our favourite characters.
Okay, so what? Well, an exploration into the past is an exploration of many major characters in terms of fanbase size. Imagine if an episode/chapter of a prequel would reveal that the power of the Sannin is relative to their generation only and that Kakashi was factually correct in thinking he had caught up to Orochimaru? Or that Kage were more political than power-based and many shinobi could beat them? In a series that has given such a wide gap for potential power ratings, with Chunin being used in tailed beast sealing and Akatsuki capturing missions while other characters are massively hyped as battle monsters, the slightest statement or implication thereof can have massive impact in terms of debating for and against the power of certain characters. Those statements or showings do not have to mean much of anything. The way debates often work means anything can be used!
So what we have done is created a situation in which the team behind Naruto can never afford to imply much about major characters or they could offend a large section of their fans. For the biggest characters, for every fan who is for them are dozens who are against them. Perhaps they could try to focus on the distant past to avoid any connections to Naruto era characters, but connections are difficult to avoid.
So short of the fanbase reaching a stage where we appreciate the philosophical/non-combative qualities of characters and the story more than anything else, we may never get any insightful takes on the Naruto world before the 4th War.
What say you?
Are we the antithesis of our own wishes?
@Troi
@Bob74h
@Avani
@minamoto
@Devil90
@Sagebee
@Uverdore9
A tired author takes a break of a few years while the team he worked with puts out supporting material such as databooks, games and light novels to give us more of that world. Then the author comes back and does a serious run of episodic mini-series looking into the world of Naruto. Short runs of the ages of Hashirama, Hanzo, Hiruzen and so on. Precisely what fans wish for.
Unfortunately, capitalism is a thing and it seemed that Naruto as a franchise was too popular and well respected to simply go quiet for a few years. The iron was hot, there was striking to be done. With Bleach having already given the idea, next generations was done and the rest is as it is - no matter how you see it.
Still, fans request prequels or prequelic works and even if they come after Boruto, they should work out quite well, so why not? Well, that may be our fault . . .
It seems to me that Naruto is first and foremost a philosophical/humanistic series. However, a large section of the fandom revolves around arena battles. Whatever balance that may be between combative/judgemental mortality and a multi-faceted world of Naruto, it is what it is - at least currently. Thus large numbers of the fandom directly correlate character quality with battle ability - we are invested in our beliefs of the strengths of our favourite characters.
Okay, so what? Well, an exploration into the past is an exploration of many major characters in terms of fanbase size. Imagine if an episode/chapter of a prequel would reveal that the power of the Sannin is relative to their generation only and that Kakashi was factually correct in thinking he had caught up to Orochimaru? Or that Kage were more political than power-based and many shinobi could beat them? In a series that has given such a wide gap for potential power ratings, with Chunin being used in tailed beast sealing and Akatsuki capturing missions while other characters are massively hyped as battle monsters, the slightest statement or implication thereof can have massive impact in terms of debating for and against the power of certain characters. Those statements or showings do not have to mean much of anything. The way debates often work means anything can be used!
So what we have done is created a situation in which the team behind Naruto can never afford to imply much about major characters or they could offend a large section of their fans. For the biggest characters, for every fan who is for them are dozens who are against them. Perhaps they could try to focus on the distant past to avoid any connections to Naruto era characters, but connections are difficult to avoid.
So short of the fanbase reaching a stage where we appreciate the philosophical/non-combative qualities of characters and the story more than anything else, we may never get any insightful takes on the Naruto world before the 4th War.
What say you?
Post automatically merged:
Are we the antithesis of our own wishes?
@Troi
@Bob74h
@Avani
@minamoto
@Devil90
@Sagebee
@Uverdore9
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