Board Thread:Episode Discussions/@comment-3261234-20150416133517/@comment-1458758-20150417022558

After reading other people's takes, I think I can do better on my summation of this episode. So I'll address it by character.

Sakura - I liked the theory and explanation behind the techniques, but it is painfully obvious where this is going and I really can't stand it, they did the same with Kiba, Shino, Hinata, the only one who didn't get this treatment is Tenten, because she doesn't have an ultimate move from the end of the series.

Chouji - Not bad, but nothing new. He didn't embarass himself for not being the centre of attention, and that's not bad at all.

Ino - I actually frickin' loved her freak out about Saya's move putting the Yamanaka name to shame, I look forward to seeing a mental duel between her and Saya.

Sasuke - Interesting take on how he 'judged' Karin and Suigetsu, but honestly, never liked him in pre-Itachi fight Shippuden cause he's got all the personality of sack cloth.

Karin - Find it weird that the girl who developed her crush on Sasuke 3 years ago is for some reason so cold to him here. Other than that, was actually fine with this.

Suigetsu - Lovable chump as always, really enjoyed watching him prove that he can actually fight, it is so rare, honestly.

Saya - Love her crazy predator thing, and while I wish the 'curse' of her puppet was more original, instead of being some modified version of the Mind Puppet Switch Cursed Seal Technique, she still seems like a good opponent and the first genuine 'villain' sort from amongst opposing genin, as opposed to mooks (the other suna teams, the kusa team) or the allies on opposite sides (Ameno, Shira, Ajisai.)

Mamushi - Actually quite like his snake hand thing, it's different enough from Anko and Orochimaru's implimentation to make it vaguely interesting, and his dynamic with his team isn't bad, but those eyes man, they freak me out...

Sana - Disappointment incarnate. The other two at least have moves, it's like the animators looked at her and went "What do we do? We're out of ideas..." "I know, weird shaped kunai" "BRILLIANT!" Still, good dynamic, hopefully she'll prove better next week.

All in all, this episode was far from the worst, but it really wasn't great, the split focus really took away from what good there was, and as I was writing this, I've come to the unfortunate realisation of something.

Taka only really exists because Sasuke is boring as sin.

Seriously, Suigetsu, Jugo and Karin rarely, if ever serve a purpose in the story. They aren't Sasuke's moral compass,that's Itachi almost exclusively, when they do aide him in battle, it's usually to all their detriments, and the most time we see them, it's displaying their personalities more than anything. Only in like the last arc did they have any solid usefulness beyond cannon fodder, but even that was as support to others when two of them are frontline fighter types. I'm honestly beginning to think Kishimoto added them purely because he realised that Sasuke's side of the story from the instant he killed Orochimaru until the moment Orochimaru came back would be boring as all get out without someone there to take attention away from Sasuke's soul crushingly miserable personality.