Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-11276487-20140910170435/@comment-12509038-20140913202718

Per the request of one of my friends on here, I would like to take a moment to give my two cents on the subject. I have a different discussion I am writing somewhere else, so I don't want to blow my load completely on here, but here is my quick opinion.

First and foremost, I am very happy with what Sasuke has decided to do, and if he did anything less extreme, I would've been disappointed. Sure it was great to see Sasuke all "buddy-buddy" with Team 7 again, but at the same time, it was disappointing to see that extremely evil person from the beginning of the War (when he slaughtered the White Zetsu Clones) disappear. A lot has happened since then, and while Sasuke is no longer pure evil, he has come up with his own unique way of achieving peace. However, he cannot accomplish that without some type of rash means- in this case, he cannot change the shinobi system without his revolution. In my opinion, this is the best his character has ever been throughout this entire series. He is trying to accomplish something that is bigger than himself, but he can't do that without doing some horrible things. This adds depth to a character, and right now, Sasuke is the most interesting character in the series. Sure Naruto's overly-idealistic personality is nice, but Sasuke is a much more relatable and entertaining character, and I am so happy with the direction Kishi is taking his character.

Regarding the issue of his death- though I am probably the biggest Sasuke fanboy in the fandom (which I will happily admit to being so), I would actually not be too upset if he were to die at the end of this entire fiasco- but only if his entire character arc has been concluded and it feels like it is necessary for Sasuke to die. What happened to Madara cannot happen to Sasuke- Madara still had room for growth, but he was completely thrown out the window for the sake of bringing back Kaguya. While I think Sasuke really is the ultimate end game, and there won't be a true final villain after he is defeated, I don't want Sasuke to be killed if there is still room for improvement for his character. While I would love for him to be in The Last, if the time is right, I would be okay with Sasuke dying after the battle with Naruto. That being said, I think the chances he will survive are higher than him dying at the hands of Naruto. After all, this will be the battle to end the conflict between Asura and Indra, and frankly I don't think Sasuke's death will stop the cycle (after all, Hashirama killed Madara, and that didn't stop the cycle). Most likely, Sasuke will be persuaded by Naruto to join the good side of the Force once more, and so he will either survive/appear in the new movie, or he will sacrifice himself to end the Infinite Tsukuyomi or whatnot.