What are you reading?

[Brian]

Uh ... Nemesis Zero?

[Jason_Miao]

Hmm...I was thinking that the name started with an S, N, or Z.  So, probably.

[Brian]

http://www.fanfiction.net/u/94665/NemesisZero

Never much cared for his Ranma fic.

[Dracos]

Well, the fic also had what is often a problem of laziness:

The author decides serious ninja should have these competencies, opinions, and focus on training.  Then, either a single character, root, or a group of OCs have been co-existing in some manner with the village get a main character squad (usually including Naruto) to train.  Their opinions are validated as reality suddenly and violently backs that they're methods of training have been the right thing and the other folks have been turning out crummy ninja.

The problem with this conceit is that it leaves the rest of the village static, despite these folks co-existing with it or reality itself saying that this works.  This turns numerous 'talented' or 'trained' folks into incompetent baboons as they either don't get or are unable to get the new reality rules, and still holding important and respected positions in the village (despite reality having not backed their insights for years).  This makes the setting unbelievable on face and makes it hard to get into what goes on past that.

As inconsistent and crummy as the original work was, it didn't have this problem.  People did act like comical buffoons who trained poorly but in context of the reality of the world, they were hard training elite ninja and society and reality treated them like such.  Nothing within the story questioned that these kinds of childish behaviors and eccentricities were allowed or enabled for trained soldier ninja.  In canon, it's a big thing learning basic shit like walking on water.  And so it's a common lazy point to decide "Man, academy students should totally know this stuff, and everyone not making sure they're learning that and a handful of jutsu and practicals is stupid" or "Asuma's a lazy bum who's just coasting the teaching assignment and not teaching his genin anything, so they should get killed".  Of course, Asuma's genin are front line elite ace combatants within a few years by canon.

Truthfully, there's nothing wrong with a more dog-eat-dog ninja world.  I've seen it done a number of times.  It just needs the rest of society changing with it too.  People Lie or Motivation both do a good job with this, not just placidly upping the competence level of the folks being focused on, but also upping the general competence of those not being so, so that they all feel like part of the same society getting different but equal levels of training.  This reinforces the general work.

Introverted lacks this wider perspective, and is a worse fic for it.

I finally put it down when a second main canon character was targeted to be assassinated later by someone who should currently be focusing on deep cover operation (The most important one in the village according to Danzo).  I don't care the reason anymore.  There's way too much in village backstabbing going on.  It's a problem I had with Geor's Alternate History (Enough inside the village backstabbing to wonder how they're managing to convince anyone they're not a house of cards ready to blow down).

[thepanda]

Speaking of Naruto fics, Dreaming of Sunshine updated. Not sure if this one has been recced yet. Its an SI but I actually really like it. She made Wave tolerable to me (if just because we see it from her perspective) which was a small miracle.

Not exactly a rail jumper (though at least that's explained somewhat.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Most of the crap that happens pre-time-skip is so far outside her ability to influence that she's chosen to focus on surviving more than anything.

Now that I think about it, she comes across as the character I would have liked Sakura to have been in cannon.

[Grahf]

Big Human On Campus updated.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Inner Moka got a chance to shine. For all of about two minutes real time. Still a good chapter though.

[Jason_Miao]

That's interesting, because lacking the perspective of someone having followed the manga, and just how prevalent the "NoTrainingWTF?!" bit is in various stories, I'd always assumed that it was part of the canon.   I suppose it is like how I'd presumed for quite a long time that Naruto getting banished must have been part of the original story (because there's no way so many people would write about such a mind-numbingly stupid turn of events unless it was part of canon, right?  RIGHT? ...oh.)

So now I wonder if I ought to go reread a few fics from the past and see how my perspective's changed.

Big Human On Campus updated.

That was a surprisingly straight-forward fight chapter for BlackDragon (the last two words being the operative phrase).

[Dracos]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7113972/1/Naruto-Potential-Realised

Sort of interesting, but very non-canon/OC based.  Sandaime survives the Chuunin exams and promotes Naruto.  He teams up with another team with Shikimaru.

It's okay, and long, but doesn't really shine.


Jason:

Well, there's a lot of popular fanon that catch on strong.  Like the Village Council or people calling Naruto Demon openly.  These can be part of an interesting fanwork, but rarely are because they're usually just vessels for communicating "I hated this." rather than "I think it'd make more sense if it worked like that."

[Ebiris]

Mass Effect: Pieces

Set 100 years after the Destroy ending to Mass Effect 3, this fic is about a lone Alliance colony that's developed an alternative to Mass Relay travel and their first ship's journey to find what became of the rest of the galaxy. It's well written and threads the line between optimism that things might recover and horror over the Reaper war's legacy. While the timeframe precludes the use of most of the original cast, their influence is still felt and a few familiar faces of the longer lived species manage to show up. Not that the OCs are lacking, they're all fleshed out with the sort of personalities and tics that wouldn't be out of place on the old Normandy.

[Brian]

Tried to struggle through some of 'Two Halves', a decent-length Naruto/Hinata fic.

Unfortunately, the length is the only decent part about it.  Tsunade as 'Tsunande', a truly grating OC that's 'Kakashi's equal', though the author spends an awful lot of effort describing her outfit/hair (with a genjutsu Hinata evidently can't see through), and terrible contrivances....  "<English phrase> no jutsu!" was also painfully bad, as were the numerous face-palming homophones....  Blearg.

Avoid.

[Anastasia]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9059345/8/Of-The-Stars

Of the Stars updated. Okay chapter, I like that it's getting Rei into the story early. The rest is eh and setup.

I reread a few bits of the story. I'm a little less enthused now, in part from letting it all settle and in part of finding out who the co-author (EarthScorpion) is. I'll spoiler this part since it's a digression.

Spoiler: ShowHide

I've read a lot of EarthScorpion's work and I don't have a high opinion of his world building. Sure, he does some interesting things on first glance. He's good at adding some meat to settings. But therein lies the problem. The more I read of this works, the more the price of this meat is too high. The worlds he writes lose something. I'm having difficulty putting it into words, but it's like trading a gold Rolex for a cell phone. The cell phone's nicer and more useful, but it doesn't have anything close to the value of the Rolex. The magic's gone from the world on the heels of world building.

His fics have a distinct pattern: They start off interesting and slowly taper off into something that's fundamentally unappealing. Maybe EarthScorpion and I are on different wavelengths.

[alethiophile]

Promises of a Wandering Hero updated, concluding Motoko's arc. Apparently now going on hiatus in favor of Path of the King.

Pretty decent. I'm interested to see just what's going on with Shirou.

[Anastasia]

Apparently now going on hiatus in favor of Path of the King.

Pretty decent. I'm interested to see just what's going on with Shirou.

I wouldn't be surprised if he sneaks in a chapter or two on occasion. He posted that he writes PotWH as a change of pace and to refocus.

[Rezantis]

Speaking of Naruto fics, Dreaming of Sunshine updated. Not sure if this one has been recced yet. Its an SI but I actually really like it. She made Wave tolerable to me (if just because we see it from her perspective) which was a small miracle.

I just had a look at it based on your recc - I quite like it as well.  Surprisingly well done.

[Anastasia]

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8162862/74/Bringer-of-Death

Bringer of Death just had a corker of an update.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Krillin near single-handledly defeats Cell. Cell's arrogance comes back to bite him in the ass. Even his last gambit fails - Goku survives thanks to some quick thinking on his part. Man, Cell had everything that happened that chapter coming and then some.