Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-32676759-20170725042729/@comment-27089028-20170824132334

Yeah, I can get behind that. Part 1 felt kind of free form you know, like it could go in any direction and the plot was fairly fluid and not yet set in concrete. I noticed that change though around the time Naruto and Sasuke's first clash ended because from then on it felt like the story had a sense of direction and purpose or to put it simply an end goal to reach.

Don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with that it's just some of the endearing themes that made Part 1 so beloved like effort and endurance gave way to destiny, prophecies, bloodlines, reincarnations and genetic talent which kind of sucked. Not to mention the circle of plot relevance shrunk as Part 2 went on until it ended up only circling Team 7 (although really it's just Naruto and Sasuke).

It felt like Part 2 had been engineered to specifically bring Naruto and Sasuke back together for a final fight and to do that they needed something to bring them together and that something was Madara (although I suppose it was Obito by proxy throughout most of the series). But of course around the fight between Guy and Madara Kishimoto to his credit started to build up Kaguya (as much as he could and it really comes off as forced) to replace Madara's role as the thing that would bring the Naruto and Sasuke together.