Not to offend any fans, but what's with all the Sasu/Naru fics?? O.O

I only bring this up because I was looking through the fanfics section to see if there was anything I'd want to start reading and I think the ratio is like 5 to 1 Sasu/Naru fics over anything else. I don't understand it. Maybe I can understand girls fangurling over Sasuke... but Naruto?? Really?

I know I'm possibly risking being pelted by tomatoes for asking (obviously due to their popularity lol) but I felt like it was time to ask the question!

I don't understand Naruto, and don't understand fangirling over the children in that show either, but hey that's me.

@Artemis: After the time skip, they're teenagers, most of whom are at least a foot taller than Mizuiru. Not to mention all the AU fics set in college and the jounin fics that feature them in their twenties. It's not the age that makes Naruto so doe-eyed in these fics.

I've never found anything "pretty" about Naruto to begin with. He was a dirty boy, is now a perverted teenager, and is bound to be a playboy adult with stinky socks. He'll be picking his nose his entire life. That's just the kind of character he is. All fics that describe him with shoujo "pretty, effeminate, petite" terms are bizarre. To me. In my opinion. Fans get off on that ideal because they picture themselves as sweet petite pretty little blondes being taken advantage of - the Naruto in their fics is a mary sue/self-insertion with blonde hair and whisker-scars. It has nothing to do with the character himself. They self-identify so much you can show a screencap of Naruto on the toilet with his face screwed up and they'll blush and simper about how shy and embarrassed the sweet little darling was during that scene. We're not even looking at the same thing anymore.

Yes, "kawaii~!!!"-ness is in the eyes of the beholder, isn't it??

And I thought the kids were only 14 for the new series

Yeah, Naruto was 11 to 12, so 3 yrs later he was 14 to 15. Plus a year or more with all that's happened since the time skip. Sasuke was 15 to 16 post-skip, and the older kids were 16 to 19. It's the Prince of Tennis syndrome. What's the difference between the students and the teachers? Three feet. ;p One more foot for the Naruto gang and even the shortest one (Naruto) will be even with the adults. Assuming there are any adults left. I stopped following the canon since they went all Harry Potter with the killing off of adult characters to make room for the 'next generation' to take over. Shikamaru raising Asuma's kid? No, thank you. But that's a whole other rant. ;p

When it comes to Naruto, he's "cute" in that he makes me laugh. When he gets his squinty-eyed scowling, squatting like a weirdo and fuming over some imagined slight...that's cute. Like that dog over there chasing its own tail for hours. Ridiculous. Cute. That's not the "kawaii" these fans see when they look at him. No matter what he's doing they see that one scene at the start of the anime where Naruto cries because he saw an upsetting death for the first time. Wide eyed vulnerability, baby fat cheeks, (invisible to them) snot trailing down his face, trembling lower lip, and the way he shakes his head all dramatic-like. Even when we see him on the toilet with the runs (there's at least one prolongued bout of this in the second (?) episode, not including the ova where he craps his pants) they don't see a guy on a toilet - they see that teary-eyed child Naruto upset about the cold facts of ninja life. And that's all they'll ever see because that's what caught them. No matter how old or powerful he gets, he'll always be that vulnerable little boy crying because he lives in a world where bad things happen.

Oh! The reason there are so many fics is because it's the hot thing. That's it. Gundam Wing was huge during its run. Naruto is only bigger because more people have the internet now. It'll cool down once the next best thing pops up featuring something for the kids to relate to. Boys grew up with DBZ back in my day, now they're growing up with Naruto. Maybe their kids will grow up with a Clamp series. One can hope. ;p

Ok, I can see the Mary Sue thing. It's the whole doe-eyed thing in a nutshell. It's just... why do these girls want to see "themselves" being so submissive? It's all crazy. But then again, women have been reading Harlequin's for ages, so I guess all ages are guilty of this.

ooh..crap. Now this is interesting, I was kinda wondering when someone was gonna bring this up here. (oh, and the skip to shippuden, before it, naruto was actually the oldest in his class, failed the year before and the year before that >>) but anyway! That's off the subject! It is very mary-sue-ish most the people who write them, you're completely right, base it all off themselves, and it makes it bland and boring. Though I have seen a few sasu/naru fics that weren't like that, but they were few and far between (not really a fan of naruto in any fashion, just was forced to watch it cause of my ex bf) But I don't think its so much a harlequin thing so much as wanting to see the "Ass" as a sniveling vunerable chick , because naruto is the main char and he's a perverted freak, same reason as naru/sasu makes sasuke into a prepubestent little girl

I thought Naruto was older, too. He failed to pass so many times. But everyone says he's almost a year younger than Sasuke. That's one of the reasons Naruto is the automatic uke - he's younger. But Sasuke was in the same class as him, so either Naruto entered school years younger than Sasuke, or Sasuke failed the same classes as Naruto.

I just think that if they aren't legal, you shouldn't write fics about them

Stop writing Bleach fics, then, Artemis. I don't care if they "look" older just because they're drawn taller. If they aren't legal, you shouldn't write fics about them. The end.

That has nothing to do with this thread or this group. This is an anti-doe-eyed uke group. I checked. If you want an "anti-shota" or "anti-under-18 except with my favorite pairings" group, go make one.