Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-43403813-20191029010046/@comment-37624536-20191221141423

Before I even start, want to let you know I'm not trying to prymaid post it's just I'm trying to say what I want in one post if you feel like I should split it up let me know.

Halcyonite wrote: I know that there are many favourite characters in the Naruto series, for many different reasons. I'd like to hear about what your absolute favourite character is in the series and why (you don't have to go into the same level of detail as me lol).

To start off, my absolute favourite character is Pain. Even though he is loved by many, I still think his relatively short time in the entirety of Shippuden leaves him overlooked, especially in comparison with the late-game antagonists. I firmly believe that he could have been a much better final antagonist than Obito, Madara or Kaguya if Kishimoto had reserved him for just a little longer.

First, I think he is, hands-down, the best-written character in the whole Naruto series in terms of his etymology and lore.

Nagato's technique, The Six Paths of Pain, is deep-rooted in Buddhism and Hinduism. Each of the paths are named after one of the Six Samsaric Realms of Reincarnation, being the Preta, Asura, Naraka, Deva, Animal and Human paths, and all of their abilities correspond with said lore.

For example, the Naraka Path is essentially the Hinduism equivalent of Hell, which has its own entity residing there known as Yama, similar to the King of Hell in Naruto. When sinners die, they are brought before Yama to confess their sins, and if they lie to him, their tongues get ripped out. This is exactly how the technique operates in the series. All of the other paths have their same respective similarities with their own individual techniques.

Pain's WHOLE identity was the Rinnegan, which is why I believe that the Rinnegan was always meant to be his own when he first debuted, and not Madara's, they only made it Madara's Rinnegan so they could prolong the series. "Rinnegan" literally means "Samsara Eye", and its connection with religious ideologies is why Pain was made out to be divine in the first place.

Hence, a core reason as to why Pain is my favourite character is because he is rich with contextual background and lore, easily painting him as one of Kishimoto's most thought-out antagonists.

Second, Pain's storyline and ideology is another core reason. His background teaches us about the importance of perspective, and his ideology is a reflection of our own world.

Nagato grew up in atrocious conditions, in an impoverished and war-struck country whilst larger nations such as the Hidden Leaf lived on in blissful ignorance, profiting from all of the sufferings and pain. This alone draws attention to our reality where economically smaller countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria suffer due to interventions/invasions caused by the greater nations of the world.

This feeds into his ideology. Pain acknowledged that the world had an imperfect peace. Peace for some, pain for others. He acknowledges that in order to achieve "true peace", the world must have perspective and understand pain and fear, which is why he gave the Hidden Leaf a taste of their own medicine.

Even his own ideology is a reflection of our reality. The USA did the exact same thing to Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weaponry. These weapons of mass destruction, similar to Pain's plan of creating a Bijuu weapon, acted as a deterrent to war, effectively drawing WWII to a close. However, instead of only using the Bijuu weapon in one situation like the USA did, Pain planned to use the Bijuu weapon on all nations, so as to achieve a unified perspective.

I personally love it when a character represents reality, shows a deep understanding of how our world truly operates, and exhibits morals that challenges the norm. Pain fits this description perfectly.

On another quick note, Pain being Jiraiya's former student and Naruto's sibling student created a unique connection that no other shinobi had. This is why I don't mind Naruto convincing, or "talk-no-jutsu'ing" Nagato, since Jiraiya neglected to connect with him on an emotional level in their fight, but Naruto did after Pain explained his ideology. It took Naruto quoting Nagato's exact words from Jiraiya's novel to make Nagato realise how twisted his old ideology with Yahiko had become.

Finally, Another reason as to why Pain is my favourite character are his appearance, power-scale and abilities.

Pain had the perfect kind of strength, in my opinion. He was strong enough to feel threatening to the viewer. At the time, most of us thought Pain was unstoppable before his battle with Naruto. However, he wasn't too strong so as to detract from the strategy that happens within battles; he had ridiculously strong techniques such as Chibaku Tensei and Chaotic Shinra Tensei, but he didn't use these techniques with zero effort, he strained with them, showing that he was strong, but not DBZ level. This helped a lot with the feeling of tension, and stakes in the battle.

In terms of his actual abilities, they were very strong. However, they did not have to be as strong as war-arc attacks in order to make Pain appear godly i.e. his use of Shinra Tensei and Chibaku Tensei are among the coolest attacks used in the series, and they weren't strong when put in comparison to later techniques. Hence, his abilities really helped to flesh out a facet of his identity, being his divinity.

Finally, his appearance as well. His striking Rinnegan eyes, the piercings, Akatsuki robe, his position as its leader... all these things contributed to his intimidating demeanour. His theme also helped convey his strength, his mercilessness and his position as a God. All of these things make him an amazing antagonist in my opinion, and it was a breath of fresh air to see a dojutsu more revered than the Sharingan, and a breath of fresh air to see an Uzumaki as an antagonist compared to an Uchiha. (but that didn't last long, considering Rinnegan was just retconned as the Sharingan's evolution when Madara first appeared in battle, and that Pain was reduced to an Uchiha puppet).

^Because of that, I do admit that Pain is not the absolute perfect character in terms of everything, but I can attest to his potential as a final antagonist, had Kishimoto not changed the origin of the Rinnegan, Pain's conviction and his role in the Akatsuki in order to prolong the series.

Phew, that's me done spieling. But yeah, Pain is my absolute favourite character for all those reasons above, and I don't see that changing any time soon. Personally, I think that the relationship between Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha is funny but sad at the same time. Not going to state why because I'm not oging to spoil the anime. Anyways the second is pretty much Hinata and Neji. They pretty much had the worst relationship and past. Really Hinata's worst past is really because she didn't meet the expections of her dad unlike her younger sister. So she was often looked down on. Neji on the other hand wasn't supposed to know the main branch techiques but he was taught it as genetics I guess. And also, Neji hated the main family for most of his life because he thought that they killed his dad but thats not the case. So when he found out he pretty much was thankful to the main family. Third personally, is Kiba. Personally its because Akamaru and Kiba's relationship is funny. They made the anime awesome because they were often mad at each other and did funny things just like the relationship with naruto and sasuke. Not only that but I also love dogs. Go ahead and make fun of me if you want or argue because really I don't care. Squinty97 wrote: My favourite is Kakashi. He went through so much, and I'd argue that he had the hardest past (maybe not one worst event, but several terrible events that came one after the other throughout his life).

But unlike any other character in the series who went through similarly terrible backstories, Kakashi never became a villain of the series. He never used his trauma to justify extreme measures against the world.

Another character like this is Itachi. But in my opinion, Itachi's trauma isn't quite as harsh, simply because Itachi made the choice. He knew what he had to do in order to save Konoha, and did it. Was it terrible? Yeah.

But Itachi chose his trauma. Kakashi basically had the world step on him over and over again. He didn't choose it, he was just trying to live a proper life as a Shinobi. Itachi endured punishment that he chose, while Kakashi endured repeated punishment that the world just threw at him.

So yeah, Kakashi is my favourite because he has ridiculous emotional endurance, and he's just a cool character too. I must agree without a doubt you have the best point. I can't say anything more. Twohorns wrote: Squinty97 wrote: My favourite is Kakashi. He went through so much, and I'd argue that he had the hardest past (maybe not one worst event, but several terrible events that came one after the other throughout his life).

But unlike any other character in the series who went through similarly terrible backstories, Kakashi never became a villain of the series. He never used his trauma to justify extreme measures against the world.

Another character like this is Itachi. But in my opinion, Itachi's trauma isn't quite as harsh, simply because Itachi made the choice. He knew what he had to do in order to save Konoha, and did it. Was it terrible? Yeah.

But Itachi chose his trauma. Kakashi basically had the world step on him over and over again. He didn't choose it, he was just trying to live a proper life as a Shinobi. Itachi endured punishment that he chose, while Kakashi endured repeated punishment that the world just threw at him.

So yeah, Kakashi is my favourite because he has ridiculous emotional endurance, and he's just a cool character too. do you really need to write an essay no one will read, Dude jus say kakashi and leave it at that, no one cares enough to read that shit I know I'm not a moderator and I'm not trying to mini-mod when I say this but I just want to say something. Please don't be mean to each other because this is not what the blogs and the naruto wiki is for. Not trying to cause any arguements. Thank you. Mercenary USA wrote: My Favorite is Onoki. Best character so far.

My least favorite and most hated is Naruto. An annoying Sasuke-obsessed brat who is also extremely selfish. Sasuke left on his own free will to get stronger and Naruto wanted to FORCED him back just because he was "lonely". He was also willing to let innocents die in a war to protect Sasuke. Naruto is one of the most pathetic characters in Manga/Anime. Then there are the stupid power ups. He comes back after the time skip and he's stronger but still nowhere near High Jonin level which is good but then a couple of weeks later he's the strongest shinobi in the universe. A teenager who has never seen a real war was more powerful than "geniuses" that had been training for decades.

The author needs to take some classes from Oda (One Piece) Dude this isn't the naruto review wiki, jeez. Also, I can't agree about the Naruto and Sasuke thing. Really, all naruto was trying to do was trying to save Sasuke from the darkness, really Sasuke kinda was forced you know by Oorochimaru really I mean dude seriously, he was. I know you may not think that but because of the past Sasuke had he was sorta forced, you know not, going to lie. But dude, he was forced because he wanted to get stronger and not trying to spoil the anime but dude remember what Oorchimaru told Sakura that Sasuke would come to him looking for more power, that makes me think that he was forced. Argue with me all you want I believe that Naruto was just trying to save Sasuke from the darkness, to be honest, argue with me all you want I don't care. Squinty97 wrote: @Ya Boi King Kai

I explained how I interpreted the differences between their hardship.

And to be fair, Itachi did give up his reputation for them, but he never cared about his reputation to begin with really. He never really cared how people perceived him. So I wouldn't call that pain.

And Itachi never told Sasuke any of it before he died.

Again, I feel the difference was choice. Itachi chose to go through those hardships because it was what he thought was right. He chose to bear the title of traitor to Konoha (which he didn't even care about as long as Konoha was safe).

Kakashi didn't choose for Obito to die, he didn't choose for Rin to die to the jutsu that Obito's eye helped him completed, he didn't choose to break his promise to Obito, he didn't choose to be kept from the battle that took his Sensei and mother figure away, who he'd been protecting for 9 months before that, and he certainly didn't choose to come home to his father dead from suicide. And due to his unfortunate life, he was unfairly given the title "friend-killer Kakashi." In contrast to Itachi choosing his traitor title.

Itachi chose a life of pain because he could see a reason behind it; protect Konoha

Kakashi had a life of pain that was given to him and endured, even though most of it had no reason except his own shortcomings. I got to agree but why would he do that to protect Konoha also, I wonder why Itachi never told Sasuke. Soul reaper wrote: I'd say Kabuto had one of the most messed up lives. Found with no memory, taken in and given a name and family by Nono, tries to help them by joining one of the harshest shinobi units, has to work undercover in all the major villages, still as a child which would have been incredibly stressful, and then as thanks gets tricked into killing his mother figure while she tries to kill him. Has a bit of an identity crisis, gets taken in and mentored by the creepiest guy on the planet, creepy guy gets a new favourite boy who he spends years training, only to get killed by new boy, starting another identity crisis. His method of combating this is to implant the genes of his creepy mentor and a whole bunch of other people to try and figure out who he his, becomes a deformed snake man and then gets trapped in a loop of psychological trauma so he can work through his issues, but he's still stuck as a creepy snake guy for the rest of his life. I have to agree can't say anything more.