Menace's recent announcement got me thinking, on the differences between HP and Naruto fandoms. What I'd consider the great fics of each. So what in your opinion goes into a good Naruto Fic? What grabs you (other then technical writing skill)? A unique power? A grittier setting? Fem!Sasuke? I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts.

 

A plot that actually makes me give a shit for once.

 

Ah, good fighting scenes, originality (narutoverse is pretty wide, there is plenty to write about) and especially Naruto's character development. I do like fics where he strives for peace, but I would rather read the ones that actually make him struggle with his ideals. Also, less therapy-no-jutsu and more ass kicking.

Edit: Almost forgot. A plot that actually goes forward is essential, plenty of good fics get stuck in Pre-Shippuden after hundreds of thousands of words. I don't really want to read about a 12 years old cast for that long.

 

The only Naruto fics I really enjoy are those that make me forget it was based on a manga/anime. I dislike the over the top approach to everything that shonen manga take, so a fanfic that brings character quirks down to a believable level is much better than one that doesn't. This includes outright ignoring visual gags like sweatdrops and nosebleeds.

There are other things, but that's the major one for me.

 

To add onto this, the storytelling style is really important. There's some things that can only happen in a manga due to the visual medium and the suspension of disbelief already present. It's much less existent in written work, even if fanfiction is pretty lenient.

Failing that... Team7shipping. *wolf whistles*

 

Battles that don't last for more then 2-3 minutes and fights where characters don't punch someone when they have the opportunity to stab them.

...Seriously, aren't ninja supposed to fight dirty?

 

I like the stories where the skills are won through blood, sweat and tears (not cheating by giving the main character Sharingan/Rinnegan or the instant learning through the use of thousands of Shadow Clones).

 

Good character interaction and world building. For the second, you'll probably have to ignore pretty much everything from part 2, but not necessarily.

Reasonable power levels help a lot, for fights. The last few bits suffered from DBZ syndrome, where everyone could blow up the planet with a twitch of a nipple.

 

The vast majority of worldbuilding in Naruto comes from shippuden, what.

 

Exactly, and most of it's retarded. At least, the way Kishimoto told it. It's completely possible to include all of it and still write an interesting world, but the ability to actually do so is fairly rare.

 

The best worldbuilding in Naruto comes from shippuden. Keep chugging that fanon kool-aid and whining about sharinhax, friendo.

 

A good fic needs a good Jiraiya. If Jiraiya doesn't play much of a role, then there needs to be a good Hiruzen. If that's not possible either, give me a good Kakashi. If those three aren't available in any capacity (and quality) then the story is probably not one I'm going to stick with.

Aside from that I also dislike a weak Sakura.

 

I miss the time when kishimoto wasn't Indian...

 

I'm actually cool with most of the sharingan's bullshit. Izanagi and Susanoo are kinda dumb, if only because how, but the setting includes bullshit ninja magic and if I couldn't have accepted that I wouldn't have read it.

No, most of my problems come from basically everything involving Kaguya, Zetsu, the Jyubi, Obito, the Rinne Sharingan and the fucking chakra fruit.

 

The things I'm gonna say are probably a bit biased.

• No Slash or Harem
• No Naruto/Hinata (I see it as the Naruto equivalent of Harry/Ginny)
• No Minato Bashing (Seriously, what was the guy supposed to do)
• No Sharinngan or Rinnegan for Naruto
• No changing of power levels because of crossovers (E.G Giving Naruto access to only one element in the Avatar Universe).
• Repeating the Wave Arc almost exactly the same. Make at least 5 different changes if you plan to do it at all. Unfortunately, since it adds a time for bonding fro Team 7 before the Chunin exams, it's usally better to do it.
• ANBU identities aren't secret. When you have people with unique hair like Yugao and Kakashi, it's a bit hard to maintain secrecy.
• NEVER EVER use "Kit" or "Precious People".

That's all for now, I'll probably add mroe later.

 

The best Naruto fics are the ones that don't have to be rewritten abandoned rewritten and then abandoned again only to end up being rewritten. But not in that order : ^ )