Kakashi badfics - The Abusive Childhood
Okay, I'll admit it, I have reviewers' block in regards to the original fanfic I choose to anbu. Now, let's address yet another disturbing Kakashi trend within the Naruto fandom. Kakashi's abusive parents, mostly his father, how typical. The first one I came across was A Father's Hand by one HeartofSword26. It was the second one that prompts me to start ranting...more. Let's us dive into this cesspool of big bad angsty childhood plot device, eh? While I'm at it, why don't I also pick out what ELSE within this makes my eyes twitch.
The Deed: Masked
The Perpetrator: Katryna Black
Let's begin, the premise of this fanfic, is to provide a reason for why Kakashi wears a mask all the time. From the summary, I've already guessed that Kakashi will be provided with an angsty childhood, mostly from a father figure. Oh look, I'm right.
“That’s not good enough!” A hand struck the boy’s cheek, sending him flying to the floor. The first line of this fics jumps right into teh angst, and already questions are raised on my part. How old is Kakashi in this fic? As stated during the Chunnin arc, when Kakashi explains why Team 7 is not too young to enter, he list himself as an example on account that he became Chunnin at the age of 6.
The fact that Kakashi became a Chunnin at 6, is a factor that does affect fanfiction like this one. One, young Kakashi would be a bit difficult to pick on, he might not win a fight against grown-ups who are bigger and likely stronger than him, but he'll be able to put up some sort of fight at least.
Two, for Kakashi to become so strong at such a young age, someone ought to have instilled the basics in him early, and for that I speculate that Kakashi either have very adequate parents, or at least some sort of guardian figure, whom would not have allow the sort of abuse Kakashi receives in these fics to take place. For those who speculate that Kakashi's parents are very strong ninjas, and therefore are harsh and abusive on their son so that he can fulfill their expectations, I'll like to point out that had Kakashi harbour such an abusive childhood, he wouldn't have had the spirit to become as strong as he did and is. Just look at Hinata. As for Neji, he did have his father for the crucial early years.
Three, the Hokage is a wise man, do you think he'll let this kinda crap goes on, especially if Kakashi was a Chunnin by the age of 6. If I am Hokage, I'll watch geniuses like Kakashi closely, after all, would you want your best soldiers to be burdened and affected by mental problems as a result of child abuse? Speaking of which, if Kakashi was a Chunnin by 6, he would have made gennin even earlier, and be assigned a teacher. Does the 4th, Yondaime, looks like the kind of man who would let his students be treated like that?
Kakashi's evil daddy explains to Kakashi's mother, who isn't trying to stop this beyond half-hearted advice for the man to stop BTW, that he's hitting Kakashi because the boy has a pretty face, and then further comparing it to that of a baby, or models from magazines. According to Kakashi's evil daddy, with a pretty face, Kakashi will never be a true shinobi. This was all said in between the beating of a crying Kakashi, we have a bruised face, kicking, and little Kakashi flying across the room. Thankfully, this was done and over with within a few lines.
The last time I saw Naruto, the 4th Hokage, Yondaime, was a very handsome man, other fans agreed. Then there was the great Uchiha clan, breeders of kickass pretty boys like Itachi and Sasuke. Haku the pretty girly one, that talented ninja from the Wave Country arc, is a genius with his demonic ice mirrors, and ability to perform one-hand seals.
Orochimaru, is one of the three legendary Sennins. When Orochimaru was Sasuke's age, he was very cute and sweet with his pretty baby face. Some fans argued over whether or not Orochimaru is still cute, but the facts is, the ninja powerful enough to take out a small country talks like a woman, acts like a woman, and no one is not taking him seriously. Should I even mention Kabuto and Kimimaro? Ninjas with pretty faces are very common, if anything, Gai-sensei is a bit of a rarity. So why is Kakashi's father beating on his child because he thinks pretty boys can't be ninjas? This sounded like the author has based the entire fanfic around certain social stereotypes, which while it does happen in our world, would NOT work in this situation, both because of Kakashi's character and the modern progressiveness of the Naruto Universe.
Also, Kakashi's typical parasite-wife to abusive-man mommy is just wonderful:
//His mother managed to coax her husband into a chair to drink some sake, giving Kakashi a chance to run from the room// Yes, because the best thing to give to a man while he is violent and abusive is alcohol. I see the logic here, why sign up such apes with rage issues to costly anger management programs, when you can just give them some alcohol
//Kakashi did not want to return to class with his face. He wished he could tear it off, switch it with someone else, or just erase it. But he couldn’t. So he did the next best thing.//
Hello, fragmented sentences ahoy, and a few typos scattered through out the short story. Did I mention the author's abuse of grammar, such as using "But" and "And" to start sentences. Words like "and" and "but" are conjunctives, to link like phrases.
Kakashi then made a mask for himself using some material from his shirts and threads borrowed from his mother, spending that night sewing. Oh no! Look at that sissy boy, he's sewing! Kakashi will never be a true ninja now, poor evil daddy's efforts have just gone to waste.
Well, that wearing a mask thing apparently worked, because Kakashi's evil daddy stopped hitting him, never mind the sissy sewing thing. It was also mentioned that Kakashi's mother stopped ignoring him, despite the fact that it was never mentioned or shown earlier that she was ignoring her child. Nice.
The fic finally ends "twenty-some" years later, where Kakashi stills wears his mask to protect himself against "his father’s hand and his mother’s ignorance", despite the fact that his parents are most likely dead by now. If not, I think it was very clear in the series that Kakashi are not living with his parents, and even if he was, he should be very capable of defending himself. Again, would the Hokage lets one of his best soldiers get smack around so?
I really love how Kishimoto-sensei writes the character of Kakashi, it's very realistic to the situation, admirable and endearing. It pains me to no end to have rabid fangirls come along, see a bishie, and decide to bastardize him by reducing such a complex well written character to a child molester, rapist, or creepy Iruka stalker. This recent appearance of child abuse victim Kakashi is not pleasing either, especially considering that I've always imagine that like Iruka's parents, Kakashi's parents were likely very decent and honourable people, however brief their time with their son has been. Just look at how Kakashi turned out, and I can see it.
It's not just Kakashi too, with other characters, across fandoms, angsty abused childhood have become all too popular a plot device. Why, oh why oh why? If you want Kakashi angst, why not write about the whole everyone he loves is dead thing? Obito? Yondaime? Sasuke? It's not like Kakashi's life is lacking in angst material, which goes for a lot of Naruto characters in fact, even seemingly stable Iruka, who had a lonely childhood, and should be even more fucked up now that his co-worker Mizuki has turned on him. In sadieko's words, what's with the "lets make their lives even more horrible!" theme that more and more fanfics are written with.
In some situations it will be fitting, like Yuki's from Gravitation. Naruto's suffering at the hands of the villagers, Hinata's mental abuse. Kakashi however, with his strong, grounded spirit, is not. Stop it now, stop forcing square plot devices into round situations where it doesn't fit.
It's becoming too common now to see what started out as an excellent theme in a fitting circumstances to be used elsewhere where it don't belongs. I guess you can consider it as trendy, like STDs.
I thank merichan for this "evil daddy" term.
Crossposted at ff_anbu. With minor altercations to the intro.
-----------------------
ETA: Read merichan ff_anbu review on A Father's Hand, that which now have two chapters since I last saw it. My god, idiots hitting the rock bottom and starting to dig.
ETA2 : For a good handling of Kakashi angst, read her Blood, Scars and Soap, gotta warn you though, it's GaiKaka, but mostly subtext.
Another ingenius handling of Kakashi's angsty past, a general mostly non-pairing one too, unless you are a Yondaime/Kakashi fan who likes to read between the lines, what happens between them doesn't go beyond one advance rejected by one IC teacher.
Without Pain by Katty3. It's Kakashi and Yondaime centric. An older Kakashi reads a note that Yondaime wrote to himself when his team met Yondaime. You know, the kind of notes you write to your future self, with the goals and dream. The angst is not overdone, but view in whole, Kakashi's situation is gut-wrenching. One by one, Kakashi' precious people is lost. Slight YonKaka...(Yondaime said no).
Back to Naruto Links
The Deed: Masked
The Perpetrator: Katryna Black
Let's begin, the premise of this fanfic, is to provide a reason for why Kakashi wears a mask all the time. From the summary, I've already guessed that Kakashi will be provided with an angsty childhood, mostly from a father figure. Oh look, I'm right.
“That’s not good enough!” A hand struck the boy’s cheek, sending him flying to the floor. The first line of this fics jumps right into teh angst, and already questions are raised on my part. How old is Kakashi in this fic? As stated during the Chunnin arc, when Kakashi explains why Team 7 is not too young to enter, he list himself as an example on account that he became Chunnin at the age of 6.
The fact that Kakashi became a Chunnin at 6, is a factor that does affect fanfiction like this one. One, young Kakashi would be a bit difficult to pick on, he might not win a fight against grown-ups who are bigger and likely stronger than him, but he'll be able to put up some sort of fight at least.
Two, for Kakashi to become so strong at such a young age, someone ought to have instilled the basics in him early, and for that I speculate that Kakashi either have very adequate parents, or at least some sort of guardian figure, whom would not have allow the sort of abuse Kakashi receives in these fics to take place. For those who speculate that Kakashi's parents are very strong ninjas, and therefore are harsh and abusive on their son so that he can fulfill their expectations, I'll like to point out that had Kakashi harbour such an abusive childhood, he wouldn't have had the spirit to become as strong as he did and is. Just look at Hinata. As for Neji, he did have his father for the crucial early years.
Three, the Hokage is a wise man, do you think he'll let this kinda crap goes on, especially if Kakashi was a Chunnin by the age of 6. If I am Hokage, I'll watch geniuses like Kakashi closely, after all, would you want your best soldiers to be burdened and affected by mental problems as a result of child abuse? Speaking of which, if Kakashi was a Chunnin by 6, he would have made gennin even earlier, and be assigned a teacher. Does the 4th, Yondaime, looks like the kind of man who would let his students be treated like that?
Kakashi's evil daddy explains to Kakashi's mother, who isn't trying to stop this beyond half-hearted advice for the man to stop BTW, that he's hitting Kakashi because the boy has a pretty face, and then further comparing it to that of a baby, or models from magazines. According to Kakashi's evil daddy, with a pretty face, Kakashi will never be a true shinobi. This was all said in between the beating of a crying Kakashi, we have a bruised face, kicking, and little Kakashi flying across the room. Thankfully, this was done and over with within a few lines.
The last time I saw Naruto, the 4th Hokage, Yondaime, was a very handsome man, other fans agreed. Then there was the great Uchiha clan, breeders of kickass pretty boys like Itachi and Sasuke. Haku the pretty girly one, that talented ninja from the Wave Country arc, is a genius with his demonic ice mirrors, and ability to perform one-hand seals.
Orochimaru, is one of the three legendary Sennins. When Orochimaru was Sasuke's age, he was very cute and sweet with his pretty baby face. Some fans argued over whether or not Orochimaru is still cute, but the facts is, the ninja powerful enough to take out a small country talks like a woman, acts like a woman, and no one is not taking him seriously. Should I even mention Kabuto and Kimimaro? Ninjas with pretty faces are very common, if anything, Gai-sensei is a bit of a rarity. So why is Kakashi's father beating on his child because he thinks pretty boys can't be ninjas? This sounded like the author has based the entire fanfic around certain social stereotypes, which while it does happen in our world, would NOT work in this situation, both because of Kakashi's character and the modern progressiveness of the Naruto Universe.
Also, Kakashi's typical parasite-wife to abusive-man mommy is just wonderful:
//His mother managed to coax her husband into a chair to drink some sake, giving Kakashi a chance to run from the room// Yes, because the best thing to give to a man while he is violent and abusive is alcohol. I see the logic here, why sign up such apes with rage issues to costly anger management programs, when you can just give them some alcohol
//Kakashi did not want to return to class with his face. He wished he could tear it off, switch it with someone else, or just erase it. But he couldn’t. So he did the next best thing.//
Hello, fragmented sentences ahoy, and a few typos scattered through out the short story. Did I mention the author's abuse of grammar, such as using "But" and "And" to start sentences. Words like "and" and "but" are conjunctives, to link like phrases.
Kakashi then made a mask for himself using some material from his shirts and threads borrowed from his mother, spending that night sewing. Oh no! Look at that sissy boy, he's sewing! Kakashi will never be a true ninja now, poor evil daddy's efforts have just gone to waste.
Well, that wearing a mask thing apparently worked, because Kakashi's evil daddy stopped hitting him, never mind the sissy sewing thing. It was also mentioned that Kakashi's mother stopped ignoring him, despite the fact that it was never mentioned or shown earlier that she was ignoring her child. Nice.
The fic finally ends "twenty-some" years later, where Kakashi stills wears his mask to protect himself against "his father’s hand and his mother’s ignorance", despite the fact that his parents are most likely dead by now. If not, I think it was very clear in the series that Kakashi are not living with his parents, and even if he was, he should be very capable of defending himself. Again, would the Hokage lets one of his best soldiers get smack around so?
I really love how Kishimoto-sensei writes the character of Kakashi, it's very realistic to the situation, admirable and endearing. It pains me to no end to have rabid fangirls come along, see a bishie, and decide to bastardize him by reducing such a complex well written character to a child molester, rapist, or creepy Iruka stalker. This recent appearance of child abuse victim Kakashi is not pleasing either, especially considering that I've always imagine that like Iruka's parents, Kakashi's parents were likely very decent and honourable people, however brief their time with their son has been. Just look at how Kakashi turned out, and I can see it.
It's not just Kakashi too, with other characters, across fandoms, angsty abused childhood have become all too popular a plot device. Why, oh why oh why? If you want Kakashi angst, why not write about the whole everyone he loves is dead thing? Obito? Yondaime? Sasuke? It's not like Kakashi's life is lacking in angst material, which goes for a lot of Naruto characters in fact, even seemingly stable Iruka, who had a lonely childhood, and should be even more fucked up now that his co-worker Mizuki has turned on him. In sadieko's words, what's with the "lets make their lives even more horrible!" theme that more and more fanfics are written with.
In some situations it will be fitting, like Yuki's from Gravitation. Naruto's suffering at the hands of the villagers, Hinata's mental abuse. Kakashi however, with his strong, grounded spirit, is not. Stop it now, stop forcing square plot devices into round situations where it doesn't fit.
It's becoming too common now to see what started out as an excellent theme in a fitting circumstances to be used elsewhere where it don't belongs. I guess you can consider it as trendy, like STDs.
I thank merichan for this "evil daddy" term.
Crossposted at ff_anbu. With minor altercations to the intro.
-----------------------
ETA: Read merichan ff_anbu review on A Father's Hand, that which now have two chapters since I last saw it. My god, idiots hitting the rock bottom and starting to dig.
ETA2 : For a good handling of Kakashi angst, read her Blood, Scars and Soap, gotta warn you though, it's GaiKaka, but mostly subtext.
Another ingenius handling of Kakashi's angsty past, a general mostly non-pairing one too, unless you are a Yondaime/Kakashi fan who likes to read between the lines, what happens between them doesn't go beyond one advance rejected by one IC teacher.
Without Pain by Katty3. It's Kakashi and Yondaime centric. An older Kakashi reads a note that Yondaime wrote to himself when his team met Yondaime. You know, the kind of notes you write to your future self, with the goals and dream. The angst is not overdone, but view in whole, Kakashi's situation is gut-wrenching. One by one, Kakashi' precious people is lost. Slight YonKaka...(Yondaime said no).
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