Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-30168130-20170319171713/@comment-1746153-20170411172243

What bothers me the most about death in Naruto is tone shifting. Back in Part I, there was tension and sense of danger, as well as some fairly gruesome deaths (like those guys in the Forest of Death that got leeched). Then, as the series continued, it became evident that characters have plot armor, until the plot calls for a meaningful death (not that those were bad deaths though). But then the war happened, and it was supposed to be some grand event, except there was somehow hardly any tension (at least for me). Neji died after not getting any Part II development so it just felt random.

This ties to my other major issue with the series, that being too many characters with too few getting proper development. Ideally, Naruto should have had fewer characters, a few meaningful deaths (that would progress the story) and, uhhh... Maybe less villain redemption. And definitely less messiah stuff.