Fandom Naruto: Seiryūden―No Happy Ending

[Pariah Stark]

Does anyone else think the ending to Naruto was too perfect? Almost everyone got out alive, all the major antagonists were defeated or reformed... Naruto even gets to become Hokage! Sounds like the ideal happy ending to me, but I'm not exactly a fan of everybody having a fairy tale-style happily ever after.


Or, maybe, do other Naruto roleplays focus just a little too heavily on combat? Do you think most characters generally have too much raw power? Kekkei Genkai abuse, anyone? On that note, is there anyone else that thinks Shinobi shouldn't be all about the good guy versus the bad guys? Because I prefer all sorts of shades of grey and that ever-present problem of choosing the lesser of two evils.


If any of that sounds appealing or maybe just strikes a chord, I might have a roleplay right up your alley.


Check it out here.

 

[Pariah Stark]

Bump.

 

[Xillia]

Totally agree I'm down to looking into this, partially because I have not ever done a Naruto RP despite my best wishes.

 

[Pariah Stark]

Growing fast! Check out the link and jump in!

 

[DreamBeat]

Is there a deadline of some sort??

 

[Pariah Stark]

No, but the sooner characters are in, the easier it'll be to get started in the first wave of IC.

 

[Elemental Son]

I'm in, if you'll take one more.

 

[Pariah Stark]

The roleplay has an OOC and I'm constantly accepting new characters.

 

[Elemental Son]

Excellent; thank you.

 

[Pariah Stark]

The IC is up and we're chugging along nicely! Still looking.

 

[Pariah Stark]

The roleplay is going on impressively strong for being so young. Looking to expand.

 

[Bacon is fluffy]

I've got some concerns.


First off, is these one of those build yourself up rp's or one of those annoying, you can't do cool stuff rp's? I ask because the powers in nardo weren't the issue. The problem was the narrative and lack of humanity in the plot.


Nardo was black and white and made it a super hero series, when it could have gone much bleaker and darker. Zabuza eluded to things of epic brutality and psychological warfare. Kakashi nearly killed himself using the hypnosis from his sharingan. Genetics with both positive and negative traits are all great ideas.


But ninjas went from being people with powers, to gods with powers.


So I ask, are you restricting powers early on? Because I like the idea of being a person with powers, but also the freedoms the shows original premise gave it pre cheese.


Secondly, how are you handling genjutsu? I mean after a certain point it was forgotten. I rather liked the stealthy approach before everyone was a god at taijutsu and breaking the mind control.

 

[Pariah Stark]

A prime example of how I deal with power progression can be found in a character called Kokuro. The character is past her prime (like Tsunade or Jiraiya) yet still retains a significant amount of power, likely that of Kakashi without the Sharingan. She also has no Clan, a solid character identity and a solid character history. One of her core abilities, Electrolocation, was created as a coping mechanism for the loss of her eye and ultimately became one of her most notable traits - but only with time. In short, the character was given creative leeway due to her age and narrative structure.


I treat Genin as somewhat clean slates. Yes, they can have their strengths and weaknesses, but they're not going to often be immediately identifiable. Sure, it might be unpleasant that every Genin starts out 90% the same in terms of techniques and strength, but their beginning traits, sensei and new plot events will sculpt them just like how the previous events and motivations sculpted the Jounin.


If you consider the beginning of Naruto, most of the Rookie Nine had Hiden or Kekkei Genkai. But, one fight stands out to me in that it was underwhelmingly accurate: Sakura vs. Ino. Their fight was close and involved a conflict of identity with nearly no display of power. That is basically how I think the beginning should be. But, I've got exceptions. Cursed Children, for example, and there does exist a Puppeteer inside Konoha already from a custom clan that's a Genin. Diversity does exist and there is a power gap among some Genin so while I love to emphasize how close I want Genin to be, variations exist will continue to within reason. Diversity is great, but I want a healthy narrative above all.


In regards to genjutsu, I find it iffy and something hard to balance. But, I do allow it. Early on, it'll be half useless. Later, I will approach it as a unique style treated essentially as an offensive variant of medical jutsu, requiring specialized training and chakra control. I'm aiming for it to be highly thematic and artistic, likely supplementary. Because power levels are toned down in my opinion, a lot of the role play is revolves around deception and how you approach fighting in general. This means genjutsu has a unique dynamic that's high risk, high reward. The risk being that it could be entirely useless, ie against Cursed Children whose chakra fluctuates highly, and the reward being that some characters have no defense against it naturally, easily winning fights without meta-knowledge.

 

[Pariah Stark]

Bump! Always looking for more people.

 

[Pariah Stark]

Working on constructing a whole new team! Means a Jounin spot and two more Genin positions are open!