They didn't, beyond the normal response to a tragedy on that scale anyway, and it wouldn't really change their behavior substantially, given the whole Reaper invasion thing. Especially if Shepard ever got the chance to point at them and be all "You guys want to kill me for stopping this from happening 6 months ago?".

There's a far more interesting time for this kind of thing to happen though: At the beginning of Mass Effect 2. There's a lot of story potential where, say, the STG got wind early of the Shepard-clone project Cerberus ran (from the Citadel DLC) and concluded that Shepard truly did die on Alchera and a Cerberus-controlled clone was running around. The story would a spy-thriller-esque series of hijinks as Shepard and co try to evade Citadel kill-teams and Spectres, all the while trying to figure out why human colonies are disappearing and how they can stop it. It would force Shepard to rely much more on Cerberus and TIM, which could be great fun if Shepard's got Akuze in their background, and would allow the author to explore the Terminus in a lot more depth than most do.

It's actually a really neat idea. It's kinda getting the creative juices flowing. I might just take a stab at it myself, if I can find the time.

 

Feel free to write this. I'd read the shit out of it. Bonus points if Cerberus is actually on par with the STG at the whole cloak and dagger thing.

 

Damn that's a great idea, if you go for it you've got a reader.

I was going to go with a line from Arrival where it was said that stopping the Reaper attack would delay the Harvest by 5-6 years as they travelled to another gate.

So from Year 1-2 a complete lack of Reaper activity reaffirms the Council's stance that the Reapers are a myth, meanwhile there's conflict between the various races as to whether they're coming. Mainly with Anderson and Hackett backing Shepards claims on Earth and Garrus returning to Palaven to lend assistance to a sect of Turian Generals.

3-4 Shepard is sentenced to death, a combination of the fact he did kill 300,000 civillians with based on current evidence no cause while also aiding the council and removing the symbol of their quietly growing opposition.

5-6 Shepard is broken out, a year later The Reapers Arrive.

 

Mass Effect / Halo / Worm crossover

EDI, Dragon, and Cortana have a philosophical discussion on the nature of humanity and love while Jeff, Master Chief, and Armsmaster play poker, get shit-faced drunk, and tell war stories.

 

Naruto Plot Bunny:

Sometime before Wave, Team 7 finds a technique scroll which Naruto foolishly activates and it ends up forcing the three Genin to permanently switch bodies.

Naruto ends up in Sakura's body, Sakura in Sasuke's and Sakuke in Naruto's. The scroll itself is accidentally destroyed and while at first things seem humorous, the obvious realizations eventually hit and things stop being funny at all.

Sasuke now has to deal with a body containing a tailed beast, Sakura has to deal with Orochimaru and his plans and finally Naruto not only is a girl now, but his major advantage of having huge chakra reserves is gone and he has to train for real now.

 

Sakura always wanted Sasuke and Naruto always wanted Sakura. If Sakura-in-Sasuke's body and Naruto-in-Sakura's body get together, I guess everyone wins.

 

No, that was retconned. It was because of his rivalry with Sasuke or something, apparently.

 

Post-Time Skip never happened.

 

Are you talking about Shippuden or everything after the epilogue? Because hating Shippuden is hating 90% of all the cool shit in Naruto.

 

It's also hating on 100% of the stupid shit in Naruto.

Plenty of cool shit, but a TON of stupidity and poor execution.

 

Not at all. There was plenty of dumb nonsense in part one. It's just that people tend to look back on it with sharingan-tinted glasses.

 

I would prefer that just about everything after the Pain Arc didn't exist.

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Familiar of Zero / Legend of Zelda crossover: The battle with Ganondorf at the end of Ocarina of Time ends differently, with Link losing. Just moments from perishing, he is summoned by Louise for the Springtime Familiar Summoning Ritual. As he struggles to make his place in this new and unfamiliar world - as well as dealing with the challenges of being an "elf," Link begins to uncover more and more suspicious details of the world.

Basically, the idea is that Halkeginians are descendents of Hylians from a really long time ago (prior to 6000 years ago), since Hyrule fell. The 'purest' line of Hylians remain in the Holy Lands, where the ruins of Hyrule still are, and have become known as "elves." Derflinger would be something like a companion spirit to Fi, the original spirit of the Master Sword, and he has the capacity to assume his role as the Master Sword once more. However, the coming of the Triforce of Courage brings unbalance to the world, which has long been bereft of the wielders of the Triforce - signaling forth the revival of Ganondorf, as well as Zelda, as well as all of the disastrous implications it results in.

The idea I was running with would be that Ganondorf would actually have been Brimir, getting Sasha, a Hylian and wielder of the Master Sword, as his familiar and lover. Sasha killed him with the Master Sword when he planned on using the Genocide Ritual on the Elves/surviving Hylians to try to reclaim the other pieces of the Triforce, but he left behind a contingency plan, whereby four others with a remnant of his power (the magic of the Triforce of Power would be void here) would be born, to prepare the way for his eventual resurrection. Also, Tiffania can be Zelda I guess.

 

Honestly, I stopped reading after the Pain arc.

 

While true, it does gloss over the fact that the dumb nonsense was much less central to the plot and characters and more random shenanigans and 'flavor' before the timeskip.

Don't get me wrong, I do agree with you for the most part. It's just that it's much easier to remember ridiculous plot decisions and the like rather than background bullshit that is brought up once and never seen again.

 

Like what, if I may ask?

I was thinking the same but then could only come with a couple of things so now I'm curious.

 

Characterization is the big one for me. Sasuke was honestly the best of the three in Team 7 leading up to the time skip, in personality and in skill. Naruto's best characteristics only really shone through the stupid shonen nonsense in times of direst need, whereas in Shippuden that ratio is flipped. Some of that is growing up, but a lot of it is just the manga taking itself a bit more seriously. I don't even need to say anything about Sakura, do I?

In terms of dumb plot things, there aren't as many that are apparent in part one because there's so much that isn't explained until Shippuden. The dumbest offender would probably have to be the Sasuke retrieval team, imo. Konoha was low on good shinobi in the wake of the invasion, this is true, but it had already been established that the team Sasuke left with was on the level of two Konoha jounin. So rather than write the whole thing off as being too risky with the current manpower available to her, Tsunade sent... four genin and Shikamaru. All of whom (except for Neji I guess) were clan heirs.

Runner up would be all the adult shinobi, who should have been doing their god damn jobs and neutralizing the village-wide threat during the invasion, telling Naruto and co. to go deal with Gaara because lol we need to fight these shit tier Oto nin. Also Tsunade poisoning Jiraiya before going to meet Orochimaru with the EXPRESS INTENTION OF REFUSING HIS OFFER, because fuck me why would she need Jiraiya to be at full health in the incredibly unlikely event that Orochimaru gets stabby and uses her hilarious blood phobia against her?

And of course, all the little things. Why didn't the ANBU on the rooftop try tunneling up from underneath the Sound Four's barrier during the invasion, why didn't Sarutobi use a kage bunshin to shiki fuuin Orochimaru because APPARENTLY THEIR SOULS COUNT, why did a coffin even show up for Minato when Orochimaru wasn't using an Uzumaki death mask, why didn't Sarutobi throw shuriken at all three of the coffins and why the fuck does throwing shuriken at a coffin even affect the impure resurrection of a dead soul.

Actually you know what? Fuck everything I just said, why was Sarutobi actually caught off guard by the sexy jutsu long enough for Naruto to steal the Forbidden Scroll? An artifact, by the way, that contains the shiki fuuin, which SUMMONS THE DEATH GOD, BINDS HIM TO YOUR WILL, AND CONDEMNS YOU TO AN ETERNITY OF UNLIFE IN HIS INFERNAL STOMACH. Meaning if he was faking it, he was faking it with the knowledge that Naruto might choose to learn the shiki fuuin or any of the other horrifically dangerous jutsu in that scroll that weren't the kage bunshin. In which case what the fuck, Sarutobi.

etc.

There's probably more that I'm forgetting. Point is, you can justify these things, but you can also justify the elements of Shippuden that people don't like. Naruto is just dumb sometimes.

 

Relax peeps, it's shounen jump. Nobody really cares about logic and shit. Talk no Jutsu should've clued you in on what Naruto manga is gonna be like.

Naruto, like most shounen manga, can't be taken seriously because if you do, you'd end up thinking about "why the fuck did _____" like Menece up here.

I liked Naruto 12 years ago and I'm still fond of it now. Again, Naruto is shounen jump targeting young teens as their main audience.

 

ASOIAF Plot Bunny:

Before going to the Wall, Jon Snow falls ill and in his fever he sees terrible visions not of this world. He sees strange creatures, weird technologies and cultures.

He feels himself going madder and madder with each vision.

When the fever passes and Jon is healthy, he finds that he is no longer the only inhabitant of his mind.

The entire 4chan collective hivemind is now in his mind as well, influencing his actions.

And so begins A Game of Randomness.

 

So, basically, you want a 4chan quest on Jon Snow?

 

Quest? Maybe. I wouldn't want it to be written in first/second person like quests usually are, it's annoying.

I'm sure it could work though