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+--- Thread: The Sharingan, or, a modern parable (/showthread.php?tid=7923)
The Sharingan, or, a modern parable - ECSNorway - 02-15-2008
Once upon a time, there was a young man who was blessed by the Kami. He was handsome, strong, and wealthy. In his youth, the Kami had offered him a single
boon. He'd been hungry at the time (it was a lean year for the entire region), so he made a contract with the spirit to provide him with a bowl of rice
and a fish, every day, for the rest of his life.
And so the man lived in his nice house on the riverside for several years, comfortably well-off, and needing to spend almost nothing on food because every
day, the spirit would bring him his fish, and his bowl of rice, and this was pretty much enough for him, so he was satisfied.
One day the young man married a beautiful young woman. They shared the nice house, and he bought her nice clothes, and some for himself as well, so he'd
look nice alongside her. They shared the rice and fish, and it was almost enough, but not quite, so they bought some extra from their neighbors. And they
were happy, and in love, and all was well.
And eventually, in the way of such things, the woman had children, first one, then another, and more. And the couple were very happy to have children, and
loved them very much. But now the rice and fish was not nearly enough, so they spent more of the man's money, buying more food from their neighbors, and
clothes and toys for the children. And most of the time, they were happy.
But not all of the time. Sometimes, there would be a lean year, when the rice harvest was poor, and the fish were hungry. The spirit's bowl of rice would
be small, and the fish would be small, too, and the couple would have to spend even more to be sure they had enough food. "Why do you bring me so
little?" the man asked the spirit, "You promised I would not go hungry."
"I promised to bring you one bowl of rice, and one fish, oh man," answered the spirit. "I said nothing about your hunger, or your
children's."
And so, slowly, the man grew poorer, as the money ran out, and he had to sell some of the nice clothes, and the toys, and the fine things he'd bought for
his beautiful wife. Eventually she grew dissatisfied, and divorced him, and moved to a big city and got a huge alimony lawsuit against him. His children went
with her, or ran off to join the army in order to make sure they would have enough to eat.
In the end he had to sell his nice house to his neighbor, and move into the hut he'd disdained for so long, in order to pay all the bills. And the spirit
brought him his fish and his rice, and he sighed, and he ate it, and was not happy.
He looked out at his neighbor's fine new house, the neighbor's happy, beautiful wife in her fine new clothes, their children playing happily in the
yard. And he wondered how they could keep it, when he with all his strength and his wealth and his gifts of the kami could not.
And so he went to look for his neighbor, to ask of the man how he managed it, and he did not find the man at first. He looked in the house, and in the road,
and in the little shop where he'd bought the fish and sold his fine clothes and jewels.
And finally, he looked out at the river, and he saw his neighbor, sitting in a small boat with his oldest son, fishing.
This was inspired by a story I recently came across that swapped Asuma and Kakashi as team sensei's, and Asuma's explanation to Sasuke of why the
Sharingan is not the ultimate power he thinks it is.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
- Epsilon - 02-15-2008
Very nice. You caught the fable rythym just right.
Any link to the story you were talking about?
-----------------
Epsilon
- Foxboy - 02-15-2008
Rec for that fic, please?
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
- ECSNorway - 02-16-2008
Trying to find the story. Still can't even remember the title, much less the author.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
- kentmagus - 02-16-2008
What's the moral of the fable?
- yesilmavi - 02-16-2008
I think the moral is along the lines of: don't depend on your heritage, work.
in the naruto world the line between hard worker vs. the genuis bloodline who does less/ depends on the bloodline.
- ECSNorway - 02-16-2008
Exactly. In this story, the explanation of how Itachi became so powerful is because he studied, analyzed, and actually /learned/ the various techniques, and
understood /why/ they worked, how they interacted, and how to create more.
Most of the Uchiha, along with Emosuke and Kakashi, just use the Sharingan to copy jutsu and don't give much thought to what they're really doing.
So you run into situations like Sasuke's fight with Lee, where the Sharingan can see what Lee's going to do, copy his moves... but Sasuke just
isn't fast enough to take advantage of it, and doesn't have the technical knowledge to work out a different counter-move that he /is/ physically
capable of.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
- kentmagus - 02-16-2008
....Sasuke seriously thinks the Copy Wheel Eye substitutes working out or learning base principles? How is he going to create new techniques?
- ECSNorway - 02-17-2008
He isn't, he's just going to let others do it, then copy them again.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
- Disruptor - 02-17-2008
To those that read the Gold Digger comic, there is a character that has the ability to duplicate almost any move he sees. He can't toss a chi ball though.
Later on, he gets berated by Julia Diggers about being an ourangatang and his lack of discipline.
Then there was a martial artists that is interested in Gina who managed to teach the guy about about his ability while IIRC also beating another person with
the same ability to duplicate moves and his two allies.
Badly paraphrased from memory: "You know tricks that work in darkness. However, by truly knowing the art you will be strong in both darkness and
light."
--------------------
Tom Mathews aka Disruptor
- Acyl - 02-18-2008
Haven't read much Gold Digger, but I've seen enough to recognise that bit. Can't remember the
character's name, but I recall bits of his appearances. Expanding on what ShinDangaioh said - the guy had the ability to mimic most people's moves. But
when he tried to duplicate an opponent's chi fireball, it failed. He thrust his palms forward and everything, but completely failed to produce a spark. Of
course, he was totally confused about that - why didn't it work? Didn't he do everything correctly?
And of course the other guy just sneers at him. Because just copying the movements isn't enough.
That said...I seem to vaguely recall that in a later issue, he figured out some kind of chi move of his own based on that. Could be remembering wrong though.
If I'm right, it does mean he's made something constructive out of what he's imitated. The same can be said for Sasuke in Naruto canon - the Shishi
Rendan is at least halfway an original move. He made up his own variation on Lee's technique, though admittedly because he didn't see all of it.
Canonically, Sasuke does seem to have at least some ability in this direction. Post timeskip, he seems to be throwing around a more advanced variation of
Kakashi's Chidori, using a weapon as a focus - which would mean he's taken something he copied and developed it differently.
Which is why I don't precisely agree with all the Sharingan-bashing that goes on among Naruto fans. There is some basis for the 'copycats suck'
argument, but it's not really an absolute. Hell, even Kakashi can be said to use his Sharingan intelligently - in the very first fight with Zabuza back
during the Wave arc, what he's really doing is getting under the other guy's skin and breaking him in
psychological warfare, and the Sharingan is simply employed as part of that.
-- Acyl
- katreus - 02-18-2008
It doesn't seem so much as a Sharingan bashing so much as disgust with the lack of limits imposed on it by the author Kishimoto as well as disgust with the
characters that have Sharingan...
- Shepherd - 02-18-2008
I believe that the Gold Digger character was named Ryan. The first time he tried the move, he failed outright. The second time, he made the gestures while
using his feet to fire an energy shooting shotgun at the same time. Later on, he made the gestures again and it finally did work. Apparently, simply making the
proper gestures over and over again increased his 'chi muscles' or something, and he eventually built up enough chi to do the technique.
That said, Julia Diggers (the acknowledged greatest fighter of the world of Jade) still isn't impressed by him. Being a savant at doing something
doesn't equal an understanding of what you're doing. Being a prodigy has simply given Ryan power which he has never had to learn how to properly use.
----------------------------------------------------
"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV
- Disruptor - 02-18-2008
Tjalorak has it right. Those who have read Gold Digger have already seen a type of sharnigan with Ryan and his ability. Uchiha Sauske should have been
dispatched like the traitor he is, but he is brought back is the hero of Konoha while Naruto is even more despised by the citizens.
People do like Ryan and he has finally learned that all he knows are tricks.
--------------------
Tom Mathews aka Disruptor
- ECSNorway - 02-18-2008
Hokay, finally found it. It wasn't the Asuma replacement at all, I still can't find that one.
Of all places, it was chapter 4 of Livewire.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.