Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-31278419-20170331010234/@comment-734582-20170524211914

BlazeRelease wrote: I don't have a problem with the prophecy and stuff but I think they shouldn't have made Naruto directly a child of prophecy. They could have done some prophecy already famous in the shinobi world, like mention Indra and Ashura and possibly tell about a return of their return by reincarnation and so give a better to wait and more open for theories. The problem with prophecy is that it removes agency. Subverted prophecies can be interesting, but the prophecy wasn't that difficult or subverted. Sure there were two students in stead of one, and Jiraiya had to make a choice. But that wasn't much of a choice now was there, between an obviously evil guy and a good guy? Besides, it literally started with "you become a travelling writer who encounters a student" and guess what, Jiraiya became a travelling writer who encountered students.

It's a gripe i've had with more stuff in Naruto. The Kakuzu/Hidan fight is pretty clever, but the constant "Shikamaru is so smart" stuff kills a lot of the cleverness, especially since most deductions are what i expect to be standard for a Chunin or jonin and not for a guy with 200 IQ. Hidan cuts, licks blood, stands in circle and turns black. Meanwhile if Hidan gets hurt your Sensei gets hurt. Cool idea, but it doesn't take humongous genius to realize they're related, especially given how common Power of Blood tropes are.