ah. thats what it is. a complete and total incompatibility of morals.
the words that come to mind when i think of jiraiya and hiruzen are not “honorable” or “heroic” or “law abiding” or even “wise”
the words i think of are “sexual predator”, “child abuser”, “selfish”, “weak-willed”, and “untrustworthy”
and time and again the narrative excuses their bullshit and praises them for it. and that pisses me off to no end. and it pisses me off when fan authors buy into it too. and because so much of the english speaking fandom is american there is ZERO awareness or understanding of the concept of an unreliable narrator, or looking that what we are shown instead of what we are told.Â
so when the narrative says “feel pity for these two” the vast majority of the fandom feels pity. when the narrative says “these were good people who did good things” the fandom nods its head in agreement. when the narrative says “how naruto was treated while he was supposed to be under their care was tragic and entirely out of these men’s hands” the fandom makes a few sad noises and mumbles something about tragedy and fate and being unlucky.
these men had the power to do better, to be better, and failed, not because they couldn’t but because they didn’t even bother to try. and that? that is the key bit that i keep smacking into when i try to find good shitty ninjas fic. people keeping the inherent toxicity of kishi’s fucked up morals and that being the primary reason i’ve sworn off canon in the first fucking place.
