lonelyghosts-stuff

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

I'm so ready

get ready for an exuberant summer

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

Australian Magpie

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

Why is this image so fucking funny to me?

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

going through my little daily ritual of visiting all of the AO3 fics I'm reading and refreshing the page to see if they've been updated

#a03 #fanfic

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

alzheimer's runs in the family so the fact that i will be able to experience this scene for the first time again is unbelievable

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

I've joked about this elsewhere but both are examples of "Deviations from the norm will be punished unless they can be exploited and repackaged as 'opportunity'."

Have y'all ever noticed all the parallels between Naruto and Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer?

Like, they both start out with a protagonist that is heavily ostracized for something they have no control over.

For Rudolph it's his nose.

For Naruto it's the Nine Tailed Beast sealed inside of him.

There's an authority figure who is renowned as an excellent leader and the protagonist looks up to them. The authority figure is aware of the fact that the protagonist is ostracized by their peers, and yet they seemingly do absolutely nothing to condemn these open acts of discrimination despite arguably being in the best position out of anyone to bring about the changes necessary to make the protagonist's life less miserable.

For Rudolph, it's Santa Claus.

For Naruto, it's Hiruzen.

The protagonist meets someone from their same home town who is in a similar position to them. They don't fit in and they don't get along with their peers. They have a set goal in mind, and eventually they come to the conclusion that they would have a better chance of fulfilling that goal if they left their home town behind and ventured out into the world beyond it.

For Rudolph, this is Hermey the Elf.

Hermey doesn't get along as well with his fellow elves because he isn't all that crazy about making toys.

No, Hermey has a different goal in mind. He wants to be a dentist.

When he expresses this desire, the other elves mock him, and his boss even goes so far as to fire him.

In retaliation, Hermey declared that his boss can't fire him because he has already chosen to quit his job at the toy factory.

He then leaves the north pole, because he knows that he would never be respected in his desired profession if he stayed there.

For Naruto, this is Sasuke Uchiha.

Sasuke has difficulties getting along with his peers due to the trauma of losing his entire family after his older brother Itachi slaughtered everyone else in the Uchiha Clan.

His goal is to avenge his dead family by tracking Itachi down and killing him, but in order to do that, he has to get stronger.

Orochimaru offers to train Sasuke and teach him the skills he needs to kill his brother in exchange for being allowed to use Sasuke's body as his next vessel.

Eventually Sasuke leaves Konoha to begin training under Orochimaru.

Side note: Unlike Naruto, Rudolph actually leaves with his friend Hermey after realizing that his peers don't respect him and that no matter what he does, no one seems to be able to get over his nose. Which is ironic considering that Rudolph actually had parents waiting for him at home, and he still decided to just pack up his shit and leave with his new elf friend on impulse without telling anyone.

Meanwhile Naruto is an orphan who doesn't have parents. He doesn't even have adoptive parents. He doesn't even seem to have any kind of legal guardian at all. Hell aside from having his basic material and educational needs met through the financial support granted to him by the state, he really doesn't have all that much access to social or emotional support on a regular basis. He lives alone and the few people who tolerate his existence are mostly other kids around his age and his teachers (and Ramen Guy. God bless). And yet he never seems to even consider leaving Konoha.

On the contrary he seems determined to drag Sasuke's ass back to Konoha even if he has to do so with the Uchiha kicking and screaming all the way there.

Both protagonists go through various trials and tribulations until they eventually gain the chance to prove that they can be useful to their peers and finally earn the basic human decency that they always deserved and that they never should have had to earn in the first place. And they do this by being useful to the same people who have spent the majority of their lives ostracizing and neglecting them.

At least Rudolph gets somewhat of an apology from Santa before Santa asks him to use his glowing nose to guide the other reindeer pulling his sleigh through the snowstorm, but Naruto doesn't get that same courtesy.

Up until the moment he saves Konoha from Pain's invasion, there is very little indication that a majority of the people in Konoha who have been neglecting him since he was a child have changed their tune.

And after Naruto saves them, it is openly acknowledged that this change of tune is due almost entirely to the fact that Naruto had finally proved that he could be useful to them. Or at least useful enough for them to make an effort to get on his good side despite barely ever bothering to get to know him personally.

Unlike Rudolph, Naruto acknowledges the hollow, empty feeling it leaves him with to know that his worth as a person in the eyes of his peers is reducible to the benefits that he can provide to them, rather than any other part of who he is as a person.

He even acknowledges that he still holds a grudge against the other villagers for not being there for him in the past when he was growing up in Konoha.

He manages to overcome those inner demons at the waterfall of truth, but I can't help but feel as though this seems empty as well considering that none of his new fans seemed to have bothered apologizing for the shit they put him through when he was little, and even if they did then the apologies would just ring hollow since they only happened after he saved the village and rose to fame. And yet he still forgives them and pledges to move on if that is what it would take to prepare for what was to come.

Finally, a majority of the people responsible for ostracizing, harassing, or neglecting the protagonist are never held accountable for what they did, and there is little to no indication that the people in charge are going to enact any kind of policy against harassment or discrimination in order to prevent these incidents from happening again in the future.

Neither Santa Claus nor any of the Hokage that were in power during Naruto's life ever mention attempting to use their authority or the resources at their disposal to prevent history from repeating itself.

They aren't shown passing laws to safeguard individuals from being harassed for something they have no control over, despite knowing that Naruto and Rudolph suffered from those exact problems. And the reason this is so important is because a change in attitude towards the protagonist doesn't automatically equate to a change in attitude towards other people who are discriminated against for similar reasons, especially if the protagonist is treated as a special case and thus an exception to the rule. All it means is that the protagonist's reputation has changed for the better. Whether or not other socially alienated individuals will continue to suffer from discrimination has yet to be seen.

And even if those broader societal attitudes do change, it doesn't necessarily mean that the institutions that allowed such abuses to occur must have changed as well.

As long as the legal and social systems remain the way they are, there is always a possibility that the abuse will occur again and continue to go unpunished. Attitudes against harassment and discrimination can only go so far without a higher power to reinforce them, such as a legal system to penalize people for committing such offenses.

It's also a lot easier for popular opinion to revert back to what it was if there are no rules in place to enshrine those sentiments in public policy, so any changes that the protagonist has managed to make aren't guaranteed to last.

Also, the fact that Naruto seems to think that he'll only see the changes he wants to see in the village if he becomes the Hokage indicates that he assumes he's going to have to do all of those things himself since he can't rely on anyone else to do it for him.

That is sad as hell.

A person shouldn't have to become a world leader in order to draw attention towards a problem as serious and pervasive as systemic neglect and abuse, and they shouldn't have to face the monumental task of addressing those issues all on their own either.

If you feel as though your only recourse for addressing the injustices that have been committed against you is to become your government's head of state then there is something seriously wrong with that government.

It doesn't matter if the Hokage is an elected position because even representatives are elected via the majority vote and that still leaves plenty of room for abuse if that same majority decides to collectively neglect or abuse someone. Also I doubt that kids as young as Naruto have voting rights and if they do then it is never mentioned.

Oh well, at least he is the Hokage now.

So basically in summary; Rudolph and Naruto spent their whole lives being discriminated against for something they had no control over only for everyone to suddenly change their tune and begin worshipping them as heroes the second that their usefulness was shown to outweigh whatever perceived flaws had caused those same people to despise them throughout their childhoods.

The North Pole and Konoha do not deserve them.

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

#he's decent at writing them when they are/were villains though #i mean look at temari #she was good #it's like kishi realized he needed the villains to pose a threat so he wrote even the female antagonists competent #but then when it came to the good guys #nope #they had to be support class and constantly needing saving #sigh

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

I think having a baby niece is great cause my brother will send me just a constant stream of messages that sound indistinguishable from how someone at Jurassic park would text if they were being hunted by the raptor

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

Zabuza and Haku for my man JB !

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

Who is your favourite Sensei? 😁

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

Touch starved Kakashi, anyone? 🤭

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

Wonder what he’s reading. Not really. Art by me.

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

wee lad kakashi action edition