Yeah. There are a LOT of Naruto fics whose base assumptions I disagree with -- sometimes on minor issues, sometimes on major issues, and with greater or lesser degrees of vehemence. But I generally figure they are being written for other audiences and just stop reading them once I realize they are not for me. I prefer to save my comments for stories I actually like and/or people I actually know. (For whatever internet values of know apply in these situations, anyway.) And I can usually see where the writer is coming from, even if I think the position is full of shit, so eh, whatever. De gustibus non est disputandem, as the Romans said.
I don't remember off the top of my head what my stated position on Konoha's guilt (by which I mean the council, not the city as a whole) was in "What Isn't Broken," though I know I got into the politics a bit more in one of the sidefics, where it's clear that a bunch of people are biased against Sasuke and want to execute him out of hand; Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, and Iruka are the core of the faction resisting that plan. In any case, the guilt of the government does not imply the guilt of the citizens, particularly if the government is unelected, secretive, and given to ruling by fiat.
The other thing to consider is that the Uchiha were planning a coup d'etat, so it's not as if they were completely innocent victims. The punishment was disproportionate for sure! Plans are not actions! But there are reasons Itachi went along with the council's orders, and it wasn't entirely to save Sasuke.
Sasuke's motives are, as you say, the exact opposite of a mystery... at least once Itachi appears and makes the situation clear to his teammates, whom Sasuke had previously been trying to keep in the dark. (Or just hadn't wanted to talk about painful things, whichever.) One can question his decisions -- and oh, I do question, because Sasuke is the king of terrible choices -- but the motivation behind them is perfectly understandable.
I suppose it's flattering that I bothered someone enough to invoke this kind of flailing, but on the whole I have a feeling it was more of a, "How did this story get moderately popular when it contradicts all the things I believe about Sasuke-who-can-do-no-wrong? No fair! I object!!!" impulse, after which I became a convenient straw author, than anything to do with the skill of my writing.
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Date: 2013-12-21 06:42 am (UTC)I don't remember off the top of my head what my stated position on Konoha's guilt (by which I mean the council, not the city as a whole) was in "What Isn't Broken," though I know I got into the politics a bit more in one of the sidefics, where it's clear that a bunch of people are biased against Sasuke and want to execute him out of hand; Kakashi, Naruto, Sakura, and Iruka are the core of the faction resisting that plan. In any case, the guilt of the government does not imply the guilt of the citizens, particularly if the government is unelected, secretive, and given to ruling by fiat.
The other thing to consider is that the Uchiha were planning a coup d'etat, so it's not as if they were completely innocent victims. The punishment was disproportionate for sure! Plans are not actions! But there are reasons Itachi went along with the council's orders, and it wasn't entirely to save Sasuke.
Sasuke's motives are, as you say, the exact opposite of a mystery... at least once Itachi appears and makes the situation clear to his teammates, whom Sasuke had previously been trying to keep in the dark. (Or just hadn't wanted to talk about painful things, whichever.) One can question his decisions -- and oh, I do question, because Sasuke is the king of terrible choices -- but the motivation behind them is perfectly understandable.
I suppose it's flattering that I bothered someone enough to invoke this kind of flailing, but on the whole I have a feeling it was more of a, "How did this story get moderately popular when it contradicts all the things I believe about Sasuke-who-can-do-no-wrong? No fair! I object!!!" impulse, after which I became a convenient straw author, than anything to do with the skill of my writing.