This is such a minor pet peeve but its really been getting to me lately. There's something pretty common in fandom where a character is introduced with an unusual trait that goes on to become their defining trait. And because its their defining trait, fandom treats it as a given. As the story goes on, and as people participate in fandom without returning to the source material that often, they forget the trait is unusual, and forget the context it was introduced in.
Lately the specific example of this that has been pissing me off is people generalizing Shikamaru's and his father's intellect. Shikaku is supposed to be a once-in-a-generation genius strategist. His son inherits this from him. This is unusual and unexpected. Everyone is surprised to learn Shikamaru has as much potential as his father, maybe even more since Shikaku has had the experience of a great war to refine his skills, while Shikamaru seems to have prodigy talent from his childhood.
But soooooo many times I see people acting like all the Nara are just gifted geniuses?? When thats simply not true... There is no evidence of that.... Even within the Ino-Shika-Cho trios of the past and future, there's not really anything to say that the Nara has to be The Smart One. Like the Akimichi or Yamanaka could just as easily be the smartest in the group. The Nara clan does not have a Super Brain kekkei genkai. This is not a thing. I can see why people think that, because the only two Nara who are important characters in the story happen to be geniuses, but thats not like, their niche in the village.
In fact they have a canon niche and its medical research, especially based on using the antlers of their sacred deer, within the context of coming up with antidotes to the Akimichi clan's food pills. So. Yeah. I mean don't get me wrong its only briefly mentioned, but it is in fact there. You'd probably have to be some kind of freak who watches naruto over on over on repeat to know that off the top of your head though and who'd do something as crazy as that *cough cough.*
Point is, I think Kishimoto is actually pretty good at this kind of worldbuilding. When he introduces a new story element or character or piece of lore or whatever, he always provides background context for it that places it in the greater setting. This context is often subtle, occasionally even subtextual, but its introduced in a natural way with the timing and grace to make it flow seamlessly into the narrative, and then be forgotten. It makes accepting the new element really easy when its introduced, and then when that element is revisited or built upon further, its not brought up again, so people don't really remember it. But its there. The worldbuilding in naruto is like, pretty good actually, as long as its not timeline or numbers related. Kishimoto doesn't give a fuck about either of those. But he has context down pat.
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