Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-12509038-20140424013325

I recently just saw opening 7, and then I started thinking about the Invasion of Pain Arc, and I realize why I put it at #7, not #1 like most people. Now we all know the reasons why it is a great arc- some side battles like Kakashi vs. Pain were amazing, the mystery of Pain was intriguing and I loved uncovering it with the characters, the new info about Sage Mode was interesting, Pain's ability to destroy all of Konoha was incredible, Naruto vs. Pain was epic, Naruto's meeting with Minato was emotionally touching, and Naruto's character really grew tremendously from an insignificant prankster to the hero of the village. However, I want to take the time to defend my choice, and explain where I think the Arc went wrong:


 * For starters, while I enjoyed the Sage Mode training, I think it went on for a little too long, and got boring sometimes. So much of the training revolved around being still, and frankly that is not too interesting to read/watch. Also, though we saw the training methods, we never really saw the true improvements until the fight with Pain. Also, Naruto used all of these Sage techniques and senjutsu-enhanced Rasengan, and we never saw him develop these techniques.


 * Next, the Konoha shinobi seemed incredibly incompetent in this Arc. While they knew nothing about Pain except for what Jiraiya provided, hundreds or thousands of shinobi should be able to deal some damage to at least one of the Pains.


 * Also, I think there were many opportunities that were missed. In this Arc, the Konoha 11 should have shown off their new abilities. While Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Choji, and a few others did show some of their abilities off, none of them were shown in extensive detail. For example, Team Guy was not even in the village during the attack. Wouldn't it have been much better if a few of them teamed up on one of the Pains and attacked him, showing off their abilities that had not yet been revealed yet? Instead of seeing one of the Konoha 11, we saw Konohamaru take out one of the Pains. When this happened in the story, I was extremely angry. I hate Konohamaru with a passion, and so when he was able to inflict damage to the Pain, and none of the Konoha 11 did anything, my blood boiled.


 * This is sort of a nitpick, but the Asura Path (the mechanical Pain) went out way too quickly. He is my favorite, and I think him battling Naruto would have been interesting, but we never saw it...


 * Finally, we come to Nagato's revival of Konoha. While I don't completely hate this, I was not a huge fan. The only two major characters that were killed was Kakashi and Shizune, but they were brought back to life. While I love Kakashi, and I am very happy he was revived, I would have preferred more minor characters like Shizune, Shikaku, Choza, and even a Konoha 11 member like Tenten, Kiba, or Shino, die in the assault, and Nagato not revive anyone. I just think the story would have been better off for it...

There are more reasons as to why I love the Arc, and more nitpicks and problems I have with it, but I think I have said enough. Let me know what you think of my stance on the Invasion of Pain Arc!  