Should I retrofit my MC to make him lose his memories instead of retain them?

Which route should I take?

  • Stick to the initial choices

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Change them for a potentially more interesting story.

    Votes: 1 100.0%

  • Total voters
    1

CrystallineSphinx

Active member
Joined
Feb 12, 2020
Messages
2
Points
41
I’ve been struggling for the past month or so on how to characterise and develop my MC in my Naruto fanfic.

My protagonist is an old man who was reincarnated into the Narutoverse after he died. He is aware of the storyline, through watching it with his grandchild, but he was born way before the start, around the time of the Sannin.

Anyway, I’ve decided to have a non-canon arc that centres around the MC’s lineage in effort to promote character growth as well as a reason for his power to grow a lot instead of it just being ‘he trained a lot’.

But, my problem is, I find it hard to find the motivation the MC has to search for his lost father, which is the main motivation. I feel, that due to him already being mature, he won’t feel the need to hunt down his father. I could just create a situation in which the problem is thrust upon him however that could seem forced and portray the protagonist as someone who just goes along with the flow instead of being someone who’s assured and assertive.

On the contrary, I feel that if the memories of the MC are erased but he keeps defining character traits and feelings, while still keeping the mental faculties of a child, then that would fit better into the story I’d like to show.

The MC was someone who was a infantry soldier in WW2 and would, naturally, be somewhat desensitised to violence as well as having the calm demeanour that can come from old age. My plan would be to incorporate these sorts of traits into his overall personality while keeping the brash personality of a child. Which would give motive to the reasoning behind this arc beside the aforementioned reasonings.

Essentially, I’d like advice on deciding which would be the better route to go down from a reader’s point of view. ‘Which would be more interesting to read?’, that sort of thing.
 
Top