When starting House Calls, one of the first things I addressed was the issue of how AU to make it. Are Jiraiya and Asuma dead? Are they alive? Is Sasuke alive and still in hiding?
I'll say it here: if I had left Sasuke alive, if I had redeemed him and brought him home, I promise you I would have been fair. I hate the useless, little bastard, but I would have been good to him. In the very beginning of the series, he was just an teensy bit likable because you could dismiss the stand-offishness and the revenge-seeking by saying he was traumatized and I would've gone with that.
I'll admit I sort of took the cheap way out. I defused a lot of potential drama right away by killing him, but this also lead to one of my favorite parts, the beginning of chapter 3 where Sakura and Tsunade discuss whether or she misses BOTH Jiraiya and Orochimaru.
As for Asuma and Jiraiya, it was really hard for me to keep them dead. I like them, A LOT. I love Jiraiya because despite the fact that nearly the WHOLE fandom and even the man himself narrows him down to being a very two-dimensional omni-pervert, he's got a lot of depth. And Asuma is just cool. He sort of reminds me in a lot of ways of Jet from Cowboy Bebop. This laidback, reasonable authority figure that sort of personifies the Team Dad.
However, their deaths were also central to some of the most poignant and important moments of character development in the series. I think sometimes the editors must either take Kishi's drugs away from him or pin him down long enough to pump him full of meds, because the man is a shit writer... usually.
Asuma's and Jiraiya's deaths resounded deeply with Shikamaru and Naruto, thrusting the reality of their lives on them, removing the safety net out from beneath them and, to an extent, forcing them to BECOME safety nets for their friends in return. It took Shikamaru out of this perpetual state of apathy and drew genuine emotion from him while at the same time deepening his character, turning him into some of the Team Dad for ALL of the Konoha 11.
Jiraiya's death is a passing of the torch. He's not around to protect Konoha anymore, but he doesn't have to be: Naruto is.
It's so rare that I have anything GOOD to say about Kishimoto's writing or the general storyline of the Naruto series. I couldn't reverse two of its very, very FEW poignant moments.
I wholeheartedly agree with your decision to have Sasuke dead in your story. Being that I tire of his emo-ness quickly, now you have freed yourself from writing Sakura's acceptance of him being gone and moving on to the last Sharingan user. It's backstory that would just be daunting to write and would take away from the lighthearted way you write their actions and dialogue.
ReplyDeleteI like the points you make about the character death and how it changes those that are left behind. As much as I miss Jiraiya and Asuma, they live on in their pupils (I love Shika even more now). I always found Kishimoto draws action too "fast" and that would negatively effect the storyline sometimes but it seems to finally be getting somewhere.
Glad you started this rant BLOG. I hope you don't mind if I add you to my BLOG roll?
(comicgrrl from FF)