User blog:DazzlingEmerald/Adding Techniques to Your Characters

Salutations, fellow peers of Naruto Fanon. Before we begin, I humbly request you view this blog with an open mind, and do not limit yourself from obtaining further knowledge. We will be discussing what appears to most as a delicate matter, which I have been preaching for quite some time already now. From that aspect, I ask for you to remain civil throughout the course of this discussion, and I challenge you to not be so stubborn.

Instead of "doing you", which literally translates to the lack of consideration of just about everyone else on this site, I would like to challenge you to perform to the best of your abilities. Be the best you can possibly be, and strive to grow even better. Progress is the key to success, remember that. Welcome criticism openly, and use it as motivation to better yourself. Do not disregard such a loyal companion due to your own stubbornness.

Without further ado, let us now begin. The subject of today's discussion is the literal concept of adding techniques to your original characters. For most, this is the very first stage of development, and for others such as myself, the very last.

To be blunt, the sort of techniques your character utilizes are a very important element to the entirety of the design.

Before we continue, I feel the necessity to discern the most common theory regarding techniques. They are not meant to symbolize power, in every aspect, but rather a deeper meaning. Allow me to explain using examples from our own series, beginning with the face of it all, Uzumaki Naruto.

Naruto, by design, grew up a very lonely boy. He endured a childhood of resentment as a result of his inner demon, and thus, never truly had anyone he could openly acknowledge as his friend. There was an emptiness within his heart to begin with, and he desperately needed a way to fill it up. This is where his signature technique, the Shadow Clone Technique, comes into play. For Naruto, he finally had someone to cope with, someone he could talk to, even if it technically was just himself. When Jiraiya left Naruto alonein his hotel room (just before Itachi and Kisame showed up) to dazzle the ladies, what did Naruto resort to? Using the Shadow Clone Technique to keep himself company, of course. As you can tell, there is a direct theme to be followed here.

Now, let us take a look at Uchiha Obito next. Without debate, Obito's signature jutsu is his own Kamui, made available to him by his mangekyō sharingan. Much like Naruto, Obito suffered from being lonely. However, that is not the entire theme of the character. Obito is what Naruto would have been, had he slipped anywhere on his path to Hokage. When Obito lost Rin, he deemed the world a living hell, and no longer wanted to exist. He wanted to disappear from the cold, shinobi world, and that is just what Kamui allowed him to do. With Kamui, he could become intangible, transporting the essence of his being into another dimension. His hollow shell remained, but everything on the inside vanished. This was meant to portray his design; a character who lost himself due to a horrid experience.

Techniques themselves have themes centered around them. Susanoo was meant to shield Sasuke from all words of reason, and fixate his mind on his revenge. When Gaara spoke to him during the summit, Sasuke called upon his Susanoo to shield him and scorch those words. When Kakashi attempted to accomplish the very same thing, Sasuke yet again hid behind his Susanoo, pretending to have not heard anything. When Danzo spoke ill of Itachi, Sasuke couldn't bear it and yet again hid himself, so that the only emotion he conveyed was anger. For Sasuke, it was a way to hide his other emotions, which he deemed unnecessary for his own motives. Chidori symbolizes a similar concept. Sasuke does not express himself nearly enough, so each time he uses the chidori, it essentially cries out for him, hence the name of a thousand chirping birds.

This is why Kakashi does not use chidori, but rather Raikiri, because that is what symbolizes his design. Kakashi was a boy who believed in abiding to the book of shinobi, that a ninja must consider his mission before his comrade. In Japanese folklore, Raikiri and Chidori are swords; Raikiri was once Chidori, until it was struck by a lightning bolt which made it come upon a certain realization. Kakashi was forced into this realization by Obito, and thus Kakashi using Raikiri symbolizes his maturity and growth, in regards to his literal change of perception. Kakashi uses Raikiri because he understands; Sasuke uses chidori because he was confused. You can also argue that Kakashi lost his ability to utilize Raikiri efficiently to symbolize Obito's importance within his life. Once Obito, the person who changed Kakashi entirely died, Raikiri went along with him.

We can go on with examples, but the time to make my point has come at last. Techniques should not be dictated with the mindset of "what wins battles". They should not be added without forethought just because they happen to be used by your favorite canon character. And most of all, they should not be added to make your character seem more powerful.

Another very important element worthy of attention is how your character learned to use the technique in question. We have already covered why he or she has it in the first place, so now let us discuss how and whether or not it is possible for them to even have any knowledge of it in the first place.

For the sake of professionalism, I will throw in another disclaimer.

WARNING: PLEASE DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU ARE NOT A FAN OF LOGIC.

Lovely. Moving on, another important thing to take note of when adding jutsu to your characters, as previously mentioned, is how your character obtained knowledge of it in the first place. I will offer more examples.

Let us begin with the most edited page on the entire wiki, the Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique. It totals over 600 different users, making it the most widely used jutsu on our entire fanon. This of course is because it is the customary technique of the Uchiha clan, but that is a discussion for another time.

Let us decipher this jutsu for a moment. According to Kakashi, it was created by the Uchiha clan, and used most frequently by them. It was meant to be a coming of age rite. Even more so in the manga, it was unique to the Uchiha; however, even the non-Uchiha who use it in the anime are said to have copied it somehow, as in they did not truly learn how to perform it on their own. This is also the case for Kakashi.

Now, the Uchiha have been dead for awhile, so that technique is probably lost. If your Uchiha was never around the clan to begin with, the chances of him knowing how to use the jutsu are probably second to none, since none of the elders would have been around to teach it, preach it, or leech it.

The Uchiha were said to have made Konoha their home. Their techniques wouldn't have been shared with anyone else, not the neighboring Sarutobi, not the skillful Sarutobi, and sure as hell not the rivaling Senju or Hyuga. This means that your 9 year old ANBU from Kumogakure should not have this technique in his arsenal.

Sometimes, you must accept no for an answer. Discipline exists within our world for the sake of regulation. Could you tweak the rules for your own benefit?

Can you pretend that a scroll containing the Fireball jutsu somehow made it across the border of the Land of Fire onto the desk of the Mizukage so that Mei Terumi, who has access to the fire release, can learn to use it?

You can, but then that would be cheating yourself, cheating the community, and more or less, throwing logic out of the window. It would leave your character frowned upon.

Sometimes, our inner fanboyism gets the best of us. We see Madara use a specific technique, and then go to add our own characters as users to his techniques. This is absurd, because as far as we can tell, he may have created it himself and never taught it to anyone. Are we going to really disregard reason and make ourselves appear uneducated just because we love Madara? That is up to you to decide!

Now, before I loss your attention to a fit of rage, allow me to bring upon an end to this blog with my very final piece of advice. We have touched base on why and how; now, let us question ourselves further. The last question we must all ask ourselves when we add a jutsu to our character, or our characters to a jutsu, is really?

Really.

Does Naruto Uchiha really need access to both Rasengan and Chidori? Does your Sarutobi with excellent fire prowess need an infinite amount of fire techniques to establish himself as a master? For crying out loud, does everyone need to be a master at medical ninjutsu so they can heal themselves instantly?!

Really?

The choice is yours. Remain stubborn, "do you" and continue to disagree your peers selfishly. Or, encourage reason, become educated and produce quality content.

Anyone can describe 100 techniques on their character's page and then go and brag about reaching 300k bytes worth of page length. However, it takes an especially poised veteran to practice jutsu abstinence.

So then, what will you do? Will you choose quality? Or will you take nothing from this blog and choose quantity, because long pages make you appear "good"?

Thank you all for your time, and please leave me with some feedback in the comments section below! Please remember to remain civil at all times while engaging within this discussion, as I mentioned before, this is a very delicate subject.