Board Thread:Theories and Speculation/@comment-25093611-20160322113057/@comment-26773508-20160407132358

Tengen Toppa Ita-Sasuke wrote: We would forget about Kakuzu if he wasn't so hyped. Ex. He was sent to kill Hashirama (but failed). Jiraiya and Kakashi were far, faaaar more integral to the story than Kakuzu. Sure, he's a badass. And sure, he was hyped. But you'd think central characters like one of The Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya, would be shown at full combat at least once before his heroic death!! But no. Jiraiya is not shown in any major battle where he utilizes his true potential. Then one day he goes to this secret, rainy place where he displays awesome power, only to have his throat crushed and be fatally stabbed by multiple rods by a bunch of reanimated corpses. That's lame as fuck for someone so central to the story. Kakuzu, on the other hand, is merely a footnote in the grand scheme of the story.

And don't get me started on Kakashi. His fight with Goo-bito was sweet. Too bad Goo-bito merely staged Kakashi's victory so that the curse seal on his heart could be removed.

EDIT :

And speaking of Obito, I wish Tobi had been some other Uchiha. When Edo Madara first appeared in the manga, Tobi's identity became a secret again (for a while). I used to discuss Naruto theories on another site called Fandom during that time. And almost none of the forum members there expected Tobi to be Obito. In fact, most of us laughed that idea off as one of the most retarded Naruto theories in existence (at that point).

We were speculating if Tobi was in fact Izuna, or later generation Uchihas who were disillusioned by Tobirama's policies, such as Setsuna Uchiha (who lived during the time Tobirama was the Hokage). A lot of us were speculating that whoever Tobi was, he was an Uchiha at least as old as the Sanin, if not more. The reason for that was that one of the first words Edo Madara spoke upon revival was, "It seems that that BRAT Nagato has grown up!" I think it was a mistranslation or something, but that was what the English translations available at that point said.

That remark, combined with Madara telling Kabuto that he awakened the Rinnegan "towards the end of his life", convinced most of us at that forum that Madara had died during the Second Ninja War, after which his "associate" took over the identity of Tobi/Madara to continue Project Tsuki no Me.

It was intriguing to speculate on the possible backstory and the motives of Tobi, and how he was plainly betraying Madara. It would have been awesome, IMO, had Tobi been a younger contemporary of Madara, who either joined Madara for purely opportunistic reasons; or was initially loyal, but later became corrupted by the promise of power into betraying Madara. Either way, the ground was ripe for an incredible backstory involving a deeply intriguing story of politics, intrigue, personal tensions and backstabbing between Madara and Tobi.

But contrary to all our expectations, our worst nightmare came to pass and it was finally revealed Tobi was Obito after all. I still personally think that Obito was the biggest mistake Kishi made in this manga, along with the whole 4th World War. Of course, many here like Obito as passionately as I dislike him. I would have empathised with Obito had he been an adult when he lost Rin. This concept was done superbly by Netherealm Studios and DC Comics with Injustice: Gods Among Us.

But the shit with Obito was that he turned evil and started plotting the destruction of the world when he was fucking thirteen!! One can easily understand an adult going Obito's route. But a thirteen year old boy? That was too much for me.

Plus Obito spent his whole time bitching and whining about Rin after his identity was revealed. Just like how I'm bitching and whining now. But the difference is that I'm bitching because an extremely intriguing, charismatic (in a dark way) and manipulative character such as Tobi the Masked Man faded away into Obito the Whiny Man after he ditched the Tobi persona. It would have been soooo much better had Tobi been Izuna or some other Uchiha with their own selfish motives and plans.