Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-31266380-20170213121035

Hi guys, this is my first post and I believe it will be a bit controversial. I see many Minato fans saying that he is a true sage like Naruto and Jiraya and think that his sage mode works the same as theirs. I find this idea very weird. He suddenly “has it”, even after having several opportunities to use and never even hitting that he could do it. It just seems weird. Besides, he clearly can enter a perfect sage mode form, but “isn’t good at it”, and “never/rarely uses it in a fight”? Those things made me wonder, and I think that his sage mode probably won’t even make him stronger at all. Here I have some evidence for why I think this:

1 - The toads of Mount Myabuku trained both Naruto and Jiraya. They knew who trained and who dominated the senjutsu. While it seems plausible (although hard to believe) that Minato trained outside of that place, without the special oil, just with Jiraya, and managed to learn it, you must remember that Jiraya believed him to be the boy of the prophecy. You think Jiraya, who maintained constant contact with the toads through all his life, wouldn’t have told them about the boy of the prophecy (which their elder created) having learned senjutsu?

2 - Even when Naruto showed them his senjutsu, Minato thought “wow, my son have learned the same technique as master Jiraya!”. This sentence is weird, and indicates that he hasn’t learned sage mode.

3 - When they attacked Obito with the bijuu mode rasengan, Minato asked Naruto to gather natural energy, when he could in theory have done it himself. Ok, so far all I have said could have been explained by saying “Minato was being modest, he didn’t consider himself good enough yet” or “ He realized that Naruto was better at gathering natural energy than him”. This makes sense. Let’s go for the stronger arguments.

There are 4 reasons for why I consider Minato’s sage mode kindda like a nonfactor in a fight:

1 – HIS SAGE MODE IS NOT AT THE SAME LEVEL AS NARUTO’S. Kakashi, who were no sage expert and have only seen Naruto’s sage mode at that point (and maybe Jiraya’s) saw Minato’s and said “well, sensei… uh… your sage mode isn’t very good…”. To me, this was meant to show that the difference between Minato’s S.M. and Naruto’s is quite clear, even for someone not trained in the art. So even if he were to use it, I don’t think it would make much of a difference.

2 – HE DIDN’T SEEM TO GET ANY STRONGER WHEN USING IT. People see him entering a perfect sage mode and instantly think he became as strong as Naruto, but when Minato actually used sage mode, he attacked Madara with a common sized Rasengan, instead of one of those huge ones both Naruto and Jiraya can make. It would have been useful in that moment, increasing his range and destructive power. Why would someone hold back against Madara? And I’m not just talking about ninjutsu. He didn’t show any improvement in speed, strength, reflexes, sensing skills… anything. Now, I understand he was fighting the 6 paths Madara with both Rinnengan, so of course I wasn’t expecting him to put up a fight, but he could at least have lasted a bit longer, like 7 gates Gai did. But maybe I’m being too hard on him, after all…

3 – HIS SAGE MODE DOESN’T LAST LONG: When he got hit, he instantly lost his sage mode. I know it was a very strong attack by an overpowered enemy. I know. But when he lost his first arm to Obito, he didn’t lose kyuubi mode. Besides, when Tobirama and Hashirama’s clone were hit by Ten tails Obito, they were torn in half, yet that didn’t stop them from using their techniques. It seems like you don’t feel pain when you’re an Edo. So why would Minato lose his power so fast? To me, it indicates his technique is very unstable. Besides there is also that problem of him taking too much time to gather sage energy, which I won't further discuss.

4 – HE NEVER USES IT IN A REAL FIGHT. Finally, in the night he died, Minato was in the perfect situation for using S.M.: he was standing in front of the Kyuubi, which was completely restrained and unable to move (I think people don’t give Kushina enough praise for this feature), so he had TIME to enter sage mode. Kushina was going to die from having had the Kyuubi extracted from her body, and Minato knew that, so he had the REASON to try to stay alive for his son. Still, instead of at least trying anything else before, he went straight for the “I’m gonna kill myself” move, knowing that his newborn son would grow up both mother- and fatherless because of it. Let me rephrase that:

EVEN WHEN HAVING BOTH THE REASON AND THE TIME, HE WOULD RATHER DIE BEFORE EVEN TRYING ANYTHING IN SAGE MODE. If he didn’t try this in a fight against the Kyuubi, he wouldn’t try this against anyone else. Maybe it's a bit dramatic, but it makes sence, right?

- “But he was already out of chakra at that moment!” – Then why didn’t he summon Mah and Pah there? I think their genjutsu would’ve been pretty useful. Or at least Mah’s water cutting technique. I think he simply can’t summon them.

I know that he showed a perfect sage mode, and that he was fighting Madara, but still, his S.M. din’t convince me, and it seems like we should ignore that he ever did that, and act as if his S.M. makes no difference. If you guys think otherwise what EVIDENCE can you show me to back your opinion? I really am willing to change my opinion if the argument is solid.

PS: I made the title purposely controversial in order to lure Minato fans and defenders, so they can think of the reasons to counter my arguments. I don’t dislike Minato at all, and won’t mind to change my opinion in the future, if given strong arguments. 