User:You Can't See Me!/Naruto Related Drafts

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A majority of the character articles are loaded with plot summary. Simply put, after a brief explanation of their background and abilities, the article goes into detail about every time they twitch on-screen. The extent of it is seen below:

Current article size...

Now, on this subpage, I went and deleted every instance of plot on each article. My definition plot is any event that happens in the timeline of the series between the start of the series and the gap and from the end of the gap to the most current event. Events that happen only in flashbacks are still left on. Here's the thing - articles that lost 25%-49% of their size are italicized. Articles that lost 50% or more are bolded:

  • Naruto - 25,275 bytes
  • Sakura - 8,965 bytes
  • Sasuke - 9,845 bytes
  • Kakashi - 14,141 bytes
  • Shikamaru - 8,761 bytes
  • Ino - 5,663 bytes
  • Choji - 7,995 bytes
  • Asuma - 6,489 bytes
  • Kiba - 5,285 bytes
  • Shino - 4,805 bytes
  • Hinata - 5,935 bytes
  • Kurenai - 4,889 bytes
  • Lee - 7,322 bytes
  • Neji - 6,779 bytes
  • Tenten - 4,213 bytes
  • Guy - 8,118 bytes
  • Gaara - 11,744 bytes
  • Kankuro - 6,336 bytes
  • Temari - 4,762 bytes
  • Jiraiya - 7,926 bytes
  • Orochimaru - 11,584 bytes
  • Tsunade - 7,409 bytes
  • Third - 7,764 bytes
  • Sai - 4,035 bytes
  • Yamato - 4,330 bytes
  • Kabuto - 6,438 bytes

As you can see here, the Third is the only among the group checked to escape with more than 75% of its content, and that's only because he died before much more could be added to his profile. All the rest lost at minimum 25% of what they had once all of the plot stuff was cut out; most of them lost at least 30%, and nearly a fourth of them lost 50% of their mass. The fact that we have a 126 kb-total plot summary (not even counting the episode list) does not aid this little tidbit. Point being, there is too much emphasis being placed on the plot.

WARNING: The following layout proposal will have numerous off-and-on example spoilers.

Template:Spoiler

Contents

[edit] Plot

[edit] Role

A character's role should be adequately described on one of the plot articles or on the episode list. In general, larger roles should be described towards the end of the Background section.

The character's role is his job in the story. These would be larger-scale events, such as Yamato taking over for Kakashi or Deidara's task of capturing the One-tail. These do not cover specific instances; rather, those are covered in the next section.

[edit] Plot driving

Plot driving should rarely go into the article. Specific events should be covered entirely in the Plot or Episode articles.

To clarify, plot driving is when a character performs a task to further the plot that has nothing to do with his or her personality. For example, Kakashi was ordered by Tsunade to prohibit Naruto from using his Spiraling Shuriken, a task which Kakashi performs out of duty. These events have little to do with the characters themselves and thus should not go on a character article. They are events, and as such should go on a plot summary.

[edit] Conditions

Occasionally, a character will fall into a desparate condition. Among these instances are Rock Lee after his fight with Gaara and Neji after his fight with Kidomaru. One might think that these are immediately notable for the character and should automatically go on. Well, one would be wrong.

Before adding information about a character's condition, think carefully about how it affects the character...

  • Does it affect the character's personality or mindset? For instance, Sasuke being defeated by Itachi influenced his decision to defect.
  • Does it allow the character to show his or her personality or resilliance to his or her fullest? For instance, Hinata having her chakra disabled by Neji.
  • Does it force the character to make a difficult choice, in turn showing the character's development? For instance, Rock Lee's shattered arm and leg and his decision to undergo Tsunade's risky surgery.

Often times, if a ninja is near-death (as in, doomed to die; not the typical losing-end-of-a-battle scenario), that ninja will display his or her personality at its most. And obviously, if a ninja is dead, that should be noted whether his or her death is a character-building moment or not.

[edit] Character-building moments

These are possibly the most important plot events to place on a character article. Character-building events are events that develop the character's personality, which is what a character article should be about. A good way to decide whether or not a particular moment is elligible is that these events are often accompanied by excessive flashbacks and imagery, moreso than normal.

[edit] Comic relief

It is often tempting to recreate jokes, gags, or funny phrases involving the character in question. Keep in mind that doing so is not the purpose of an encyclopedia. Furthermore, recreating specific gags dives into recreating portions of the plot. Like plot driving, this is better left to a Plot article, if left on Wikipedia at all.

If a character has any particular ongoing jokes and gags, such as Guy's eccentricities, those ought to go somewhere in the character's personality or background.

[edit] Fights

Fights are the largest part of the plot for almost every given main character in the series. Often times, a character's personality develops and blooms during a fight, and their techniques and abilities are illustrated to their finest. The problem with describing fights is that they take up way too much space. So, we will try our best not to include them. Yes, I know. "Not including the fights?! Are you absurd?!"

Well, fights generally consist of two major components: the plot-driving component, and the character building component. Fortunately, both of those are discussed above. In most cases, the plot scenario will be covered in one of our many plot-summary articles. Only the character-building scenario should apply to the character unless the overall plot of the arc is heavily tied to that particular character, in which case plot details should be used sparingly.

In general, fights should not be explained in detail. There ought not to be play-by-plays. Rather, the focus should be placed on the character-building component of the fight, and it should be added into the Personality section of the article. Fights may show something else about a character, though: the character's skills, special moves, and ability to adapt to a situation. Fortunately, those can be covered in another section, described down below. The important content of fights are essentially covered everywhere else on the article.

[edit] Filler appearances

Fights, character-building moments, and roles that appear in Filler episodes are still fights, character-building moments, and roles. As such, they should still be noted in the appropriate section of the character articles. In general, however, roles in filler arcs disappear as quickly as they appear. Keep that in mind before adding everything that a character did in filler.

Fillers would be problematic for Naruto Uzumaki in particular, due to his large amounts of filler fights and newly-formed bonds. In his case, it would be best to add only fights and events that cannot be attributed to any other character.

[edit] Miscellaneous appearances

In general, miscellaneous appearances are not noteworthy. Those are appearances where the character is there just for the sake of being there, such as Shikamaru and Temari when Naruto returns to the village after the gap.

This also carries over to unimportant fights (unimportant in terms of a character, even if they are important in the grand scheme of things), such as Guy and Kakashi warding off Sound and Sand ninja in the Chunin Exam stadium. Recall that the purpose of recording the fights is to illustrate the character's fighting style and personality, not how they drive the plot. Fights are not recorded simply for plot purposes; that's what the plot articles are for.

[edit] Abilities and Fighting Style

Recently, the technique lists have been undergoing intense reworking. To aid with that, it would be possible to integrate whatever information possible onto its character's page in conjunction with the character's fighting style. Rather than filling the page with plot, more character-relevant information can be placed in. Having all of the character's

abilities handy without needing to follow a link is more convenient for the reader. Furthermore, the information about a specific technique can easiliy be mixed in with information on how the particular character uses that technique, when it was obtained, and so forth.

[edit] More Plot

The Abilities section might require a bit more plot unraveling to describe how the character learns or gains the ability in question. This plot information should be as close to the point as possible. For instance, rather than describing in detail the situation surrounding Naruto's assumption of the Summoning Technique, it would be better to cut to the chase and say how he learned it rather than why. Similarly, it would not be a good idea to elaborate on the immediate result (in this case, Naruto's inability to control Gamabunta), but rather at the character's long-term use of the technique.

[edit] What about the rest of the article?

Aside from the problem with plot, most of what is on the article can stay. For the most part, each article has a section about character Background (which covers integrated trivia, personality, and the character's role). Certain articles also have a sub-section in their Background portion devoted to a specific aspect of the character's background (such as Choji's friendship with Shikamaru, Ino's friendship with Sakura, and Naruto's relationship with the Demon Fox). Most of the articles have another section for the character's new personality and abilities in Naruto Part II. All of that can remain on the article, as they pertain to the character.