I've never really understood why so many people hate Sasuke's character.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that people automatically associate Sasuke with the angsty/emo teens who mope and complain about how their lives suck.

Unlike those teens, Sasuke has a reason to be depressed/angsty/bipolar/emotionally stunted. Furthermore, unlike those teens Sasuke actually does something about his situation. We can argue the merits of leaving the village and joining Orochimaru all day, but he did not wallow in self-pity.

Other people hate him because he is 'given everything on a silver platter/ SharinganHAX.' How is that any different from Naruto (son of a powerful clan/shinobi, immense Chakra from Kyuubi, Shadow Clones)?

I hope I don't sound like a Sasuke-fanboy because he is definitely not my favorite character, but I think he gets a lot of undue hatred.

My main reason for defending Sasuke is that he is realistically (as much as Kishimoto is able to write realistically) written. Yet these same people who hate him usually love Naruto. Furthermore, they love stories where Naruto is essentially Sasuke-lite. The most loved fanfictions are when Naruto is not Naruto.

IMO Naruto is poorly written in the manga. He is uninteresting and annoying. Yet because he is 'Ta'veren' things just naturally go his way.

/rant

 

Opinion on Synchronicity: can't make one, because first the summary and then that disclaimer of sorts right before the first chapter made me want to throw things at the screen when I read them. I had to close the tab at once. And you say the author has gone back and edited the bad bits?

...

I already know he'd drive me up the wall with his terrible use of punctuation. No thanks.

 

Your points are good in most cases but not for me, as I don't care for Naruto as a character either. Might just be simply that stupid main characters are common in those types of stories and it is a given, but Naruto doesn't anger me. The good stories overwrite his personality and he is a tool to be used for the plot. The more interesting things about the story are not about him, it is about things around him. As a tool for a story, I can ignore Naruto.

With Sasuke, I am good with his family and everything else that happened. It is simply that I don't like how Sasuke is portrayed, so when he is used as a tool for the story, I can't ignore his character like I do for Naruto.

Hell, I only got into Naruto fanfiction due to the sheer size and the world itself, not any of the characters.

 

Gotcha. I started reading Naruto eight years ago when it was still an enjoyable read. Nowadays I only read it to keep track with the good fanfics.

It really saddens me how the potential has been wasted in this story. I can no longer sustain my suspension of disbelief with it.

It had such promise, but now its a train wreck.

 

I actually like stories with a lot of Sasuke in them. He's in a ridiculously good position to carry a Naruto story if Naruto's not the focus.

 

Same. I started a story a while back with a Naruto who died at the Bridge and it was supposed to inspire Sasuke to eventually become Hokage, but had some life events happen and the mojo died.

I've considered restarting the idea, only moving up the timeline to Naruto's death happening sometime during the Chuunin Exams. Give the two more time to bond and have a greater impact. Been difficult to find my writing stride again though.

 

It's very hard to find stories that have Sasuke as a main character, but are not romance.

Especially early on in the manga, Naruto is kind of a dick and Sasuke is a pretty good guy. It takes the wave arc (and then meeting Gaara) to turn Naruto into a genuinely nice(r) person. Especially meeting Haku and Sasuke sacrificing himself (!) for Naruto.
On the other hand, it takes Orochimaru and Itachu fucking with him, to turn Sasuke kind of crazy. Yes, he had his character flaws before that, but they weren't worse than the flaws of other characters.

Obviously you can excuse Naruto being a dick, by saying that he didn't have parents and few people cared for him.
But that would also apply for Sasuke: his entire clain was murdered by his brother, who then told him some bullshit about hate and after that he apparently raised himself as an 8 (?) year old.
After that guy returns a couple years later and mindrapes him (Tsukuyomi), it's kind of hard to blame him for what happened.

I wouldn't forgive the older Sasuke now. He's extremely dangerous and has a lot of innocent blood on his hands. But 12/13 year old Sasuke was pretty much a victim.

 

You are forgetting the part when Itachi uses Tsukuyomi to show Sasuke how he did it.

 

I'll still never understand Itachi's reasoning for that. He made sure he broke Sasuke, then told him to live a life of pain and turmoil and be prepared to kill the first person he would love just to be able to gain revenge. How did Sasuke forgive this shit?

Plus I've always thought that part of the reason he was so anti social(which was the main reason he was labelled a dick) was partly to keep himself from ever been tempted to murder his friend.

 

Meh Sasuke isn't really special, fics that bash him also tend to bash Kakashi, Sakura, Hiruzen, Jiraiya and so on.

 

Sasuke's potential and his position in Naruto's age group makes him special. Authors often seem to go out of their way to weaken Sasuke to get him out of the away or make him more attractive bash material.

Anyway as far as non Naruto main characters go Sasuke, Itachi, and Kakashi are the only ones I'm actively interested in reading in the fandom.

 

Actually are there any fics that have Lee or Gai that does them justice and portrays them as more than constantly screaming people who are good at Taijustu? I really want to read that fic if there is one.

 

As the main characters in the story, not so much. I've seen them portrayed quite well as secondary characters though.

 

What stories were they?

 

There's only two I can remember of the top of my head, and both of them are either AU or a Crossover:

This is more a case of everyone being written well. There's an Interlude every so often, one of which being Lee's. The story itself is very well written, with originality and good ideas not usually seen in Naruto fandom in recent years.

The other is

A 2003 FMA/Naruto crossover. The Lee bit comes later in the story, as it has him while he was still injured from Gaara. You can imagine the interaction he has with Ed, a dual amputee. Great story as well.

EDIT: Fixed the links. First time using the FFN tags.

 

Might want to edit your links there, they're a bit off.

 

Agree with DrSarcasm. Worth Dying For is hands down one of the best Naruto fics I've read in terms of characters.

As for the Sasuke hate, I think a lot of the attraction people have for Naruto fanfics comes from the badass underdog theme. A lot of fanfiction involve Naruto showing everyone up, and the reader will always make the comparison to how strong Naruto was in the anime.

On the other hand, Sasuke's background doesn't really give him that starting point to be the underdog, so he's usually used as a plot tool to show how much more badass Naruto is now (and Sasuke's role sets himself up well for that - being the genius of his year level, having all the admiration of the village, having a semi-hostile demeanor to Naruto and being a bit of an arrogant dick), usually through something humiliating on Sasuke's part.

Really, my favourite fics have always been ones that involve the entirety of Team 7 improving as a group. It's a lot more interesting to see Naruto gain Sasuke's respect and camaraderie while becoming badass together over Sasuke getting jealous and pissed at Naruto suddenly outshining him (and hey, fair enough. As much as everyone bags out Sasuke for cheating via the Sharingan, he also did a hellova lot more training than Naruto did while they were in the academy).

 

Sasuke became a backstabbing dick who abandoned his village, tried to murder his best friend and only grew worse over time. I figured the dislike towards him was self-explanatory.

 

Heh. I actually liked Sasuke's motivations more than Naruto's tbh.

 

This is the only Gai-centric fic I've ever read: