User blog:Illuminate Void/The Guide to Powerful Characters

The Philosophy of Fanfiction: By Less Wrong

Creativity means creating a good, original work. The goodness part is complicated. Originality isn't easy, but it is simple: Just don't do stuff that's already been done.

The First Law of Fanfiction states that every change which strengthens the protagonists requires a corresponding worsening of their challenges. Or in plainer language: You can't make Frodo a Jedi without giving Sauron the Death Star. Read any book on writing ever and it will tell you that stories are about conflict; a hero too strong for their conflict is no longer in tense, heart-pounding difficulty. For example, Dark!Dumbledore and Dark!Harry both permit a Harry strengthened over canon - the first by turning one of Harry's canon!allies against him, and the second by turning Harry against his canon!allies. The most spectacular application of this principle that I've seen is Harry Potter and the Wastelands of Time, in which Harry has gained all the knowledge of ancient Atlantis and has been through literally hundreds of Peggy Sue cycles in which he learns every possible twist of fate... and Voldemort, who unfortunately got to Atlantis first, has still won every time. The Mary Sue is not defined by her power, but by her lack of an even more powerful opponent. I mention this (1) so that you know I know it and (2) because the First Law of Fanfiction ought to be in a giant banner on every fanfiction site. The most fatal temptation of fanfiction writing is to think of how much easier some character's life would be if they were a ninja. We are naturally inclined to think up ways to solve our characters' problems for them, but must learn instead to make their lives more difficult.

The Rule of Rationalist Fiction states that rationality is not magic; being rational does not require magical potential or royal bloodlines or even amazing gadgets, and the principles of rationality work for understandable reasons. A rationalist!hero should excel by thinking - moreover, thinking in understandable patterns that readers can, in principle, adopt for themselves. As opposed to the hero just being a born "genius" who comes up with amazing gadgets through an opaque discovery process, or who pulls off incredibly complicated gambits that would fail miserably if the reader tried something similar in real life.

All fanfiction involves borrowing the original author's characters, situations, and world. It is ridiculous to turn around and complain if your own ideas get borrowed in turn. Anyone is welcome to steal anything from any fanfiction I write.

Preface
I couldnt have written it better myself. The above passage is written by Less Wrong, a fanfiction author who is also a researcher in psychology and rationality thinking. The reason I have posted this, is because of its message, one I intend to cover through this article so that you may have a better understanding of your own characters. The focus of this article however is not, to tell you how to play your character, but provide advice, suggestions, and examples of how to improve the way you create your characters. This article will address what "Power" is, how to gauge it for your character, how to make a powerful character, and what constitutes as an adequate challenge for characters of power. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments in the comments section.

What is Power?
Power is the ability to create change. It is not a measure of how many techniques or abilities you possess, nor is it a measure of how badly you're character can defeat it another. It is not a matter of having the Sharingan, the Rinnegan, or a Bloodline Limit, it is not having the designation of S-Class. If that is all your character has then they are weak. Understand that. Power is a measure of your ability to affect change around you. This means that the actual capabilities of your character are independent of the abilities written on his or her article. If you have all these techniques but are incapable of doing anything with them besides beating a bad guy, your character is not powerful. They are a blunt force instrument to be used by someone who actually has power.

With that in mind, what does having the ability to affect change even mean? It means being able to change something significant within the world itself. Influence, resources, be it political or military are two examples of having real power. Thus the scope; which is a measure of how much change you create or in layman's terms how big a splash you make is determined by these factors. Kage's of a village are powerful. Not just in their ability to whoop ass on the battlefield, they have ANBU, and Elite Jounin fully capable of doing just that. The reason the title of "Kage" is so revered is because you are the leader of a village of trained assassins. That equates to a lot of political and military power. You could very easily wipe another village off the map, just give the word. That changes things, and its a BIG change. Again, your techniques and powers of themselves have little to do with it. Keep in mind that regardless of whatever powers, abilities or tricks your character has, the one thing that they need more than anything is the drive to see their objectives through. Without that spark of motivation, all that power the character has is just for show, meaningless and irrelevant.

Political Power
For those of you who wish to cater to this kind of power, then realizing the political aspects of what your village, rank, and authority can do are paramount. You have a precious commodity that most others don't.

Influence, and resources.

Characters who rely on influence and resources are quite powerful in the Shinobi. They highest ones are of course the Daimyo's, but many others are merchants, artisans, and company managers. Gato from waaay back in the Wave Arc was one such guy. Need intel on a specific person? Send a team to gather information on it. Need to stage a conflict between two enemy forces? Send your spies to stir up trouble. Misinformation is your friend. You have allies to call upon for aid, you have favors to leverage information, and alliances, you have money to buy, bribe, and pay for whatever you need.

For Shinobi or authors with a bit of political savvy, using this will be your greatest asset. Being able to manage resources, and your people into productive roles, nurturing intelligence assets and knowing how to use influence to get what you want will be your Rinnegan. Forcing entire villages to stand down, because of they dont, they wont get the proper supplies to feed their population, or halting trade to force them into compliancy are just tools of the trade. Political power isnt something to scoff at. For all your power as a shinobi, it doesnt mean jack squat, if you cant even feed your people, keep a roof over their head, and ensure they're well cared for. Getting your enemies to submit may just be a matter of giving them a bigger paycheck.

Military Power
For those who believe might is right, military power is for you. Elaborating on this aspect is whats going to allow you to portray a powerful character. Having a standing army of ninja at your beck and call does have its benefits. Assassinations, espionage, political espionage are all things you can take care. Bullying a neighboring region with total annihilation is another. Being the general or Kage of a village gives you this kind of power, along with a certain degree of political power if your village has enough sway. Once again you have what most others are going to lack.

Influence and resources.

Only its of a slightly different sort than those with a political agenda. While they attempt to use their powers with more cunning. The military approach is; do what i say, or I burn your village to the ground. Ghengis Khan is probably you're hero if this is for you. Take careful note of how best to assign the soldiers/ninja under your command. Even if you arent into politics, creating political instability is what you do best. Pressure someone else by stationing your troops at their border, run simulated battles, and prepare your troops for war. These things make people very nervous, and more than willing to bow to you if they can escape your wrath. Combining political and military influence can ensure that even if someone like Madara came about, he's going to have a LOT of problems in getting shit done if he has an entire army to worry about.

Individual Power
But what if you arent the leader of a giant village, or a politician! Are you still considered weak? No of course not. Even if you are the sword that cuts down your bosses enemies you can still be powerful. But in all cases its still a matter of what you can accomplish. At the end of the day, all the abilities written in your characters articles are nothing if your character cannot accomplish even the most basic of tasks. More than that, being able to accomplish difficult or impossible tasks is what defines your character, and how powerful they are going to be viewed. With that said, the capabilities of your character are important, but not as important as being able to use them to achieve success, but they are not the only factor.

If are still reading this, you've probably realized that virtually all of my examples, are things that YOU as the author are in charge of; namely the actions of your character and how intelligent you are about using them against any given problem. This is why Shikamaru was made Chuunin and not anyone else. He was a leader, he could assess the situation, and determine who was best suited for the task. He could strategize, plan, and make tactical assessments on the battlefield. He devised a method of permanently taking out an Immortal shinobi and he was just your average Jounin with a jutsu. That is scope. Being an intelligent fighter is whats going to get far, not how powerful or heavenly the powers he has goin for him.

The Cheapest Path to Power is Not the Surest Path to Power
Before I continue, this is something I should address as well. One of the core problems associated with the fanon here is that there is a large number of Sharingan, Mangekyou Sharingain, Rinnegan, Wood Release, Sage Mode and Rasengan duplicates popping up. Many of you likely chose these powers because of the allure of power they promise. I can assure you, it is a lie. Choosing these powers because the series depicts them as being powerful does NOT make any character you make with them powerful. Its as if by virtue of having these powers its indicative that your character worked hard, and achieved greatness, by deign of these impressive feats. In reality, its just a cheap gimmick. Its the lazy mans approach to acquiring power by just making Naruto clones, with additional powers cherry picked from one's favorites in the series all into one.

Power Is Change, Change is Story
In all of my above examples, Ive described power as something that creates change. This change is best represented by how the choices of your character affects the world and the story as a whole. If you're character backed a neighboring country into a corner to achieve political success. This may very well change the course of the story, as allies, and enemies alike will have to react to this. Thus one could say that the greatest indication of power is in how much of that is reflected in the world. There is a reason authors flock to the prowess promised by the Mangekyou Sharingan, the Rinnegan, and the like. Madara & Tobi are considered powerful because they declared war on the shinobi world, forced them into an alliance and is now bent on destroying everything they stand for. The reason they are powerful is BECAUSE of the changes that swept through the world as a result of their actions.

Thus the measure of the character's power is ironically detailed far more thoroughly in their history than any other section. If a character has power but his or her history is lacking, then they are either incompetent, or incapable of utilizing the full extent of their power. A lack of history is a lack of depth, and a lack of depth equates to a rather boring character. As I mentioned previously, drive and motivation are what make or break the character. Being able to accurately portray that and using that fuel their ambitions is part of what makes a compelling story. Part of that drive is what motivates them to even acquire power in the first place, and how they acquire it and why.

Understanding & Comprehending Power
Knowing the kind of power you have is one thing. Understanding it is another beast entirely. When making your character its important to realize not just what kind of power you want for them to have, but to comprehend as in understand how that power can best be used. If you're character is a great manipulator, then do that. Make use of that ability in creating alliances, destroying them for others, and securing your own political/military power. Being able to recognize the abilities of your enemies is just as important. You can gloss over the article and know the powers they have, but when you grasp how those powers can be used, you'll have an immense advantage in both writing out your responses, and being able to create interesting storylines. Part of the key of creating interesting powers, and understanding them is that whatever power the character has, it should relate to the character as a whole. These are abilities that the character went out of their way to acquire, which is likely why they are as powerful as they are.

Tips for Technique Creation
When creating a technique its important to realize that as the author you should where the technique came from which I call its origin. You should also know how the technique functions, ie how it works. Finally you should be describing what the intended effect of the technique is. This sounds simple in practice but it needs to be addressed since its something most users tend to overlook.

Most techniques on the fanon are just effects. They go into no detail about how the technique works, where it came from or why it works this way. For example; Storm Release: Laser Circus is described as numerous laser beams shooting off from the users hands. Thats about it. There is no description indicating how or why it works that way, and its cause appears to be derived solely from having the Storm Release. It is because of techniques like this that people become dissatisfied with their current array of powers and seek new ones, only to repeat the process over and over again.

If people recall pre-shippuden, virtually all techniques were explained in HOW they worked, which correlated to the function in the effect. The Gentle Fist works by inserting chakra into an opponents Tenketsu, which overloads the tenketsu point into closing, thereby compromising their ability to run chakra through it. By understanding that you can then add new additions. Such as elementally infused Gentle Fist. Imagine a Gentle Fist that inserted wind chakra into the tenketsu. Instead of overloading the point, it is being severed completely, along with any surrounding organs. Instead of having an amazing Taijutsu attack you are now an S-Class assassin.

This can also work backwards. If you cant come up with the origin of the technique, then consider what you want the technique to do and work your way back from there. Once you have the intended effect, think about what is at work to make the technique happen. And no, using the description that you are using yin for imagination and yang to breath life into it, just doesnt cut it. Its a half-assed explanation that at best generalizes how all known jutsu' even come into existence. You should consider the specifics of the technique.

I'll once again use the example of Storm Release: Laser Circus. The user wants to create a technique that creates numerous energy rays that bombard his opponent. Simple enough. Now how does this technique work? Is he just creating a large of orb of energy and simply discharging bolts of energy in rapid succession? Or are they coming out all at once? If its the latter, then perhaps he's creating a ring of smaller orbs and firing them all at once. But shooting an enemy to death with a beam of energy is boring, so he decides to add something else. The attacks can have their trajectory altered. Lets use the elemental aspect of water; like water the beam doesnt have to travel in a linear path, it can arc, bend, twist, what have you. Its doing this because the user is using the natural water vapor in the air to create a "circuit" or path the lightning can travel across. With this, you've basically got a cool technique that can be worked and expanded on later if you wanted to improve it. Maybe you modify it so that the energy being released instead forms a prison to contain the opponent? Who knows, the possibilities are limitless once you understand how your own powers work.