I'm Bitter About This

[redbrunja]

As most of you are aware, I stopped reading the Naruto manga a while ago (my friday morning are SO much more enjoyable now).

But I'm still pissed at Kishimoto for something.

And that's for ruining female characters with traditionally female strengths for me.

And also girl on girl fights.

I wish I was kidding.

I find out that Harry Dresden's apprentice, Molly, is a sensitive and better at mental magic (as in, she's god and your brain is clay) and I twitch. In a series with Karrin Murphy (poster girl for Badass Normal), Elaine (almost Harry's equal at raw power, better at delicate work, blew the side off a building because she was pissed), FREAKING LARA WRAITH, badass Warden Captain Luccio, and Susan who started as a scrappy reporter and took a level in badass to dhampir.

One secondary female who's a sensitive and I have to run through the above list to make sure Butcher's on the right side of how what I like to call 'The Black Lagoon Line'.

Fiona gets into a fight with some bitchy conwoman and instead of enjoying two girls in bikinis punching each other in the face, I have to mentally tabulate every badass thing Fiona has done (disarming a mugger and hitting him with his own gun, driving off two carload of killers with Molotov cocktails she made in under two minutes, blowing up a car, blowing up a car, blowing up a car, blowing up a truck, tasering a guy, basically tasering herself to drop another guy, knocking someone out with a snow globe, disarming an armed forger with her shoe) before I can relax and enjoy the fight scene that at this point, is over.

God only knows what my reaction to Katara would be at this point.

In summation: Fuck you, Kishimoto.

*randomly, I read a short-story by Jim Butcher on-line and I'm so disappointed that Murphy's first encounter with the supernatural involved Harry. So very disappointed.

Comments

[amaiko.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, don't get me started on that. HINATA DESERVED AT LEAST A FULL CHAPTER OF FIGHTING WITH PAIN BEFORE SHE GOT KILLED.

AT LEAST.

*sigh* It's the same thing as Naruto stepping in as Hinata's proxy to resolve things with Neji after Neji beats the crap out of her. Yeah, Hinata learned that she could change herself, but she was still bloodily and humiliatingly beaten by an opponent that she was absolutely no match for, and in the end, she wasn't even the one who reconciled matters between herself and Neji: Naruto ended up taking over that job for her, which, IMO, he had no right--I don't care that Neji's "fate is inescapable" thing touched a nerve with him; Hinata was the one who'd been living with Neji's hatred for years, not him.

In the end, Hinata's role is really just to become a catalyst for Naruto to fix things, including problems that she should have been allowed to solve herself. Her fight with Neji and her fight with Pain really are the same thing once you boil it down.

Feh. I really gave up hope a while ago that Kishimoto would do anything great with Hinata and am now just waiting to see what kind of hideous plot nonsense he'll inflict on Kabuto: if Hinata does do anything significant (and no, getting together with Naruto will not be counted as significant) I'll be shocked. I still follow the chapter summaries when they're posted, but don't read the actual chapter themselves unless there seem to be particularly interesting bits in them.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought about it that way, but yes.

Hinata is TOTALLY just an excuse for Naruto to do things, not really a character on her own.

Which is a real shame. But it's like - SHE is the heir of Hyuuga, SHE should be the one fixing things. Instead... Naruto declares he'll change things.

I have to admit, the scrap of hope I had that Sakura would do something awesome is dwindling.

[amaiko.livejournal.com]

Hinata is TOTALLY just an excuse for Naruto to do things, not really a character on her own.

*winces* I wouldn't put it that strongly--Hinata does have a background, personality and motivations that (originally, at least) went beyond Naruto. It's just that she's become kind of a single issue character since the time skip--Kishi resolved her family issues offscreen, so that leaves Naruto and her competence as a ninja as issues, and "competence" kind of went flying during the Pain fight, but anyway---

I mostly blame the timeskip for everything, since it's clear that Kishimoto doesn't really give a shit anymore, and the rest of the Rookie Nine have all been heavily shafted, except for Shikamaru, the man Kishimoto Would Most Like to Date If He Was a Girl (no, I am not making that up). Ironically, given the way I feel about it, the anime does a far better job giving Hinata (and her relationship with Neji) more fleshing out, which kind of sucks on one level, since it's not canon, but on the other...



Which is a real shame. But it's like - SHE is the heir of Hyuuga, SHE should be the one fixing things. Instead... Naruto declares he'll change things.

It does appear that the Hyuuga have changed a bit--now we have bodyguards around Hinata saying "Hiashi-sama will kill me if anything happens to you!", etc. and Naruto really couldn't have been the one actively causing that, since he was not in the village for three years. It probably does stem from the whole Neji/Hiashi getting things out into the open deal, but the rest (and Hinata's part) has apparently been worked out behind the scenes without Naruto's direct involvement.

Of course, Kishimoto being Kishimoto, he can't bother to show how it happened, but the Hyuuga seem to be about as plot important as Ten Ten ever since the time skip happened, especially after some of the stuff that's come up in the latest chapters.

I have to admit, the scrap of hope I had that Sakura would do something awesome is dwindling.

Well, she is doing something proactive right now, so theoretically, she could still do something awesome. Theoretically. Possibly. Maybe. :/

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Shikamaru, the man Kishimoto Would Most Like to Date If He Was a Girl (no, I am not making that up)

This is true.

It does appear that the Hyuuga have changed a bit--now we have bodyguards around Hinata saying "Hiashi-sama will kill me if anything happens to you!", etc. and Naruto really couldn't have been the one actively causing that, since he was not in the village for three years. It probably does stem from the whole Neji/Hiashi getting things out into the open deal, but the rest (and Hinata's part) has apparently been worked out behind the scenes without Naruto's direct involvement.

Good point. I have a feeling someone could write an epic fic about what was going on with the Hyuuga during the timeskip.