Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-12509038-20141124214040/@comment-8284722-20150104062705

You got that synopsis off of Tumblr, didn't you? Well, guess what? Hisana showed it to me on one of The Last's threads, and I've read the whole thing. My opinion doesn't change, although its level of goodness is entirely up to you, I guess.

Sasuke's thing really did balance out, indeed. So I got nothing to say about it, minus the fact that I didn't hate his character either. Oh - I also second Eric's question.

Let's face it; Sasuke hasn't been fully redeemed. Why else has he been wondering the world aimlessly for the past 15-odd years?? It may not be the same, but as Kakashi said to Naruto while Lee was cradling Neji's body: Pain is something that never goes away. And that pain can be transferred to any of his descendants. I said back in my third film thread that the relationship between Asura and Indra was like the relationship between Cain and Abel/Seth. Has THAT been resolved? Well... that's the most rhetorical question I have ever made in my entire life. Also, Madara came to acknowledge Hashirama in Ch. 691. Did Sasuke MAGICALLY acknowledge Naruto right then and there? N. O. Hagoromo said that Madara and Sasuke are completely different people back in Ch. 693. The same can be said about ANY of the reincarnations.

Naruto never said outright that Orochimaru was redeemable, but he DID tell Hagoromo in Ch. 692 that Kaguya was the only person he knew whose heart he did not feel. That pretty much means he's seen the good in Orochimaru.

And finally, the Invasion of Pain:

Senjutsu: It was pretty long (it was like, what, one whole volume?). However, Naruto more than refined his techniques over the course of the series and used them frequently. Plus: he combined them with Tailed Beast Mode! Now THAT'S improvement!

Ninja: Personally, I think that the Konoha Ninja being absolutely helpless against Pain makes everything all the more effective. It shows just how powerful yet twisted Pain is, and it makes Naruto's defeat of him all the more significant - it was because of that that, in-universe, EVERYONE knew he was going to be Hokage. Had there not been so many plotholes (a decent amount of which weren't ever resolved, though most were over the course of the 250 chapters), the series could've ended right then and there.

Konoha 11: None were shown in extensive detail, true, but that didn't matter because all the techniques that mattered belonged to the Number-One Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja. I didn't really mind that the characters didn't do much, since they wouldn't have done much at all. Though seriously - what did Kiba do outside of pushing a block away with his feet? And what did Konohamaru ever do to you?

Asura Path: Nah, I'm glad he went out quickly. It was quick but effective, and immediately swayed everyone's opinion on Naruto (hell, even Sakura went googly-eyed). As for favorite path - dude, EVERYONE'S favorite is the Deva Path!

Samsara of Heavenly Life Technique: No, no, no. This was solid. It showed just how much Nagato had been redeemed by Naruto. It needed to be done. For the characters thing, yeah, I agree more should've died (you forgot Fukasaku by the way), but that might've ticked everyone off to the point where they left the series in pure frustration (I heard many did simply because Hinata "died" - hell, one of my friends, who happens to have a crush on Hinata (I even asked him and he just giggled), gave up on it until I forced him back into it this Halloween; also, despite being NH, he happened to hate the ending, not sure why). That's why, in my trilogy, a whole ton of characters get killed and revived because, you know, subtext (and emotional resonance). But either way, the characters had to be revived because Naruto still carries the burden of Jiraiya's passing, and that alone was effective enough.