Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-12509038-20141124214040/@comment-8284722-20141229075124

While other material is good for tying in loose ends about character fates, it ultimately doesn't bode well when whole-scale development gets involved. Like with NH becoming canon. Had Kishi gone ahead and made them a couple after the Invasion of Pain (just an example; it could've been there, though overall anywhere in the manga) then everyone would be happy. But nooooooo. We needed red scarves, classroom assignments, moon hopping, damsel-in-distress scenarios, creepy marriages, new dojutsu, underused redesigns, ENOUGH ALREADY! (Kishi warned us he's a terrible romance writer, and now look) Naruto already has its fair share of complaints for its constant filler material, and yet now they're spamming it - CANONICALLY. What was done for Harry Potter was far, far better - and that's a worthy comparison, since if you look at it, both series ended very similarly.

I guess it does make more sense to call him the main and most personal antagonist of the series rather than its primary villain. Here's why though, which pretty much explains the rest. As Itachi once said, "Sasuke is a blank canvas". As such, his role constantly changed. When he first came around, he was a mere rival and the deuteragonist. When he defected to Oto, he was pretty much a villain in a few ways. After he left and formed Hebi, he went through more of an antihero phase. When allied with Akatsuki, he became a psychotic villain. This continued on into his revolution phase, though without the psychotic part. And finally he ends up... hell, I don't even know WHAT to call him at that point in time! Although I gotta question you about Sasuke vs. Danzo. While everyone was disgusted with Danzo's actions, did we really want Sasuke to murder him in cold blood? After that, who knew who he would kill next?

Wow, I didn't even notice that Chojuro's guard was unseen. I hope it was Suigetsu. Though I wonder - if Chojuro's the Mizukage, that means he still has his sword, and if he still has his sword, well, the Seven Swordsmen probably haven't been reformed by Suigetsu yet. We'll have to wait and see I guess.

Actually, I wasn't referring to Sasuke's Kage rant in 694, but that brief TnJ moment that started at the end of 695 and continued briefly into 696. It just was placed in there out of nowhere, and ultimately I wished it didn't happen. There's no doubt in my mind it's going to be extended, which is what I hate about anime fights (you could literally make a movie that just has Naruto and Pain punching each other from the anime content). I hope it's shorter, because that leaves it quick yet impactful. The length was perfect, really. While I admit that that moment is a bit odd, my reasoning will probably get me tons of believers. It's at that moment when we see Naruto and Sasuke's full potential. When we see the titans they are. When we see just how much they have grown from being two kids whose greatest feats were stripping naked and spitting fire to being able to literally annihilate geographic features.

When the series first kicked off, I figured "Hmm... what's with the clan and this certain someone?" No one really cared about it much then. Then when we got the Sharingan, everyone wanted the clan back. As you yourself said, we just wanted those Sharingan Badasses to return. But then the series progressed, and we got to see just how diabolical, treasonous, and murderous these guys really were. Do we really want the very embodiments of hatred to come back around after all the malice they have placed on the world? Plus, dojutsu are evil. That was proven in their lineage. No one wants a Sharingan, Rinnegan, or Byakugan user anymore in their world. Just... no. So what if Sasuke was redeemed? You can't say the same about his descendants. Sarada might very well succumb to the Curse of Hatred herself. The only I think it would work is if the Uchiha were to simply die off (thanks Itachi!), or if the Senju/Uzumaki were to somehow meld their Will of Fire with them the "normal way".

I dunno, I thought SaiIno was the best pairing, but that's just me. Fair enough if you don't care about pairings; I'm just complaining about how underdeveloped they were. In comics, you would expect practically every genre to be featured to a satisfying extent at some point in time. But in this case, the intended romance just lacked. I'm sorry, but I'm a bit dissatisfied with it. And I'm seriously just going to leave it at that.

I was hoping Orochimaru would get some good conclusion. What exactly? Well, I want him to have been redeemed in the war, but at the same time I want him to stay in Oto. He could be like Sasuke: allied with his home village but ultimately not dwelling there.