^_^

I was wondering when someone would make this thread. I was too lazy. 8D

I wonder why I enjoy Naruto's action scenes yet I am extremely bored with Sasuke's. Maybe because Naruto fights more interesting people?

Well anyway, I think we shall see Tobi's face very very soon...

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Why, hello there!!!

I wanted to make this thread in the morning but decided to wait instead xP
But I have a feeling we will be seeing tobi's face soon x)

Guy lives up to the hype once again. Thumbs up!



That's actually a really good point. Take the recent chapters: Of the three simultaneous battles (Tobi, Madara, and Kabuto), the least compelling villain was certainly Kabuto. Come to think of it, with the exception of Danzo, Sasuke has never been given a fight with an opponent we were especially anxious to see defeated.

-Er, wrote more than I intended. Just kinda let all my random thoughts pour out with this one trying to figure out why Naruto's fights seem more interesting. Feel free to ignore.

Naruto has fought people like:
Orochimaru (and Kabuto, the evil duo trying to get his arms fixed by pre-Hokage Tsunade, time skip while looking for Sasuke, in the forest of death)
Haku (the one who didn't really want to fight, but did it for Zabuza's sake)
Pein (the one who killed his godfather/grandfather Jiraiya)
Sasuke himself (his best friend turned to the dark side)
Neji (the twisted Fate guy who threatens Naruto's very Nindo),
-insert many others-

After listing everything I can remember off the top of my head, I think I realized something that I hadn't quite tied together before. In many of Naruto's battles, Naruto is out to prove something important and plot heavy or complete something he had been working on that was more powerful than the last and something that wasn't pulled out of his arse suddenly.

+ When he fought Neji, he wanted to prove that he was a 'loser' and fate isn't important pretty much.
+ With Oro and Kabuto, he was out to prove to Tsunade that he was definitely Hokage material *well, not exactly, but close enough * and to win the bet and complete Rasengan.
+ With Pein, he of course wanted to protect his village which had been plowed, literally, to show off his nearly mastered Sage Mode, and possibly to avenge Jiraiya, but of course he Talk no Jutsu'd out of the last bit. All of which leading to his final goal of find true peace.


Sasuke battles.... all of them seem to be fighting just to fight. He's not really trying to 'prove' anything or stabilize his goals. Even if he does fight to complete a goal *killing Itachi*, he acts like that was never a goal in the first place and moves onto something bigger and more terrible. His fights don't really have a point if compared to Naruto's. He has nothing at stake other than his *coughpatheticcough* life and his life alone. And his moves, we never see him train, we never see him truly struggle with actually learning anything other than the tree exercise and doing more than 2 chidori's. People complain about Naruto training arcs, but I like them. Training arcs is how you prevent "The mangaka pulled that out of his ass" remarks.

Naruto takes the world on his shoulders *I guess as most hero's are destined to do*. He isn't fighting for himself, he's fighting for his friends, village, Kurama, the world, everything. .... I guess what I'm trying to say is, the amount of risk Naruto has when he fights, especially against Tobi of all people, is much more interesting. Sasuke doesn't have a true 'risk' I suppose.


And yeah... I think the villains heavily tie into this idea. What is killing Deidara going to do? What is defeating Gaara in the chuunin exam going to do? *if that had been a normal fight I mean*, yes, Kabuto was pretty important with his zombies and all, but not only was Itachi going to handle that without Sasuke at all, Madara and Tobi are much more interesting in general. Kabuto's kinda like.... bleh. He has/had some good potential yes, but the excitement factor is nowhere near Tobi or Madara's level. Sasuke has no real beef with most of his opponents other than people like Danzo and Itachi. Everyone else were just people he fought to fought.

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Why, hello there!!!

My issues with Sasuke all boil down to a lack of decent character development. Villains are typically selfish, but Sasuke's single-mindedness goes beyond that. Most villains have a larger "because" to their actions. Tobi wants to put the whole world in a genjutsu because it will bring world peace (or something). He's obviously acting out of personal, selfish reasons, but he's also come up with some kind of philosophy behind what he thinks peace is, and given human nature, what he thinks needs to be done to achieve it.

Sasuke is different. It would help his character if he were fighting for revenge for his family because of his own pain and because (for example) he thinks families are more important than a ninja village. Then he'd stand for something specific (family) and his fights would be motivated by that. He can't fight to prove a point or stabilize a goal if literally the only thing he ever thinks about is revenge, and thinks about it in a simplistic way. The big picture, "I'm going to get revenge to show everyone [fill in the blank]" is missing.

Naruto's goal to become Hokage is also a selfish one, but he has some stuff he wants to accomplish as Hokage, and which his experiences have taught him (i.e., his fights with Neji, Gaara, Pain, etc.) He's not aiming to be Hokage just because he wants acknowledgement anymore; it's bigger than that. Kishimoto never did the same for Sasuke. There's nothing he stands for, believes in, or cares about.

That's why I was so glad he started asking questions recently. That sort of thing should have happened years ago with his character, then Sasuke's fights and everything else he was involved in could have meant something. (They would have been teaching him something, reinforcing a theme in the manga, etc.) That way, readers might still have disliked Sasuke's personality or his actions, but we wouldn't feel bored by him because he wouldn't be such a static character.