Chapter 698: Naruto & Sasuke 5

Oct 31, 2014 21:38

Spoilers and large images under the cut, of course.

Chapter 698: Naruto and Sasuke 5
Summary )

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Comments 20

geekgirl62 November 1 2014, 12:43:22 UTC
"In any case, it seems that Naruto and Sasuke are pals again and Sasuke feels better about life and stuff?"

I think it is more the case they were always friends, but Sasuke felt the need to try to break his bond with Naruto in order to become stronger and fulfill his goals. In the end he just confirmed feelings he always had and was just to afraid to acknowledge.

I don't know if Sasuke feels better about life and stuff. All that was resolved was his conflict with Naruto. I'm sure his issues with the village, the elders, and the rest of k11 still exist. We won't really know until we see him return to Konoha and interact with everyone else.

"so my ability to suspend disbelief for stories with child characters is not that high"This is the one criticism against the manga that I have never understood from fans. You are reading a manga where people use hands signs to perform "magic", walk on water, change shape into different objects, shoot fire out of their mouths, etc and this is ok, yet your concern is about their arms and not ( ... )

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senior_witch November 1 2014, 17:58:30 UTC
I think I understand subieko. Dragons and Demons and all kinds of jutsus are okay, but emotional issues should be dealt with in a more or less realistic way. They may be augmented or exaggerated, but not wrong. If those emotional issues (or moral issues etc.) are not meant in a serious way, the story is irrelevant - just some sweets or crisps to pass a rainy Sunday afternoon. I mean, I cannot imagine that Kishimoto thinks that demons and jutsus etc. really exist, but I am quite certain that he thinks that friendship is real and important ( ... )

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akatsuki210 November 1 2014, 15:00:58 UTC
I liked this chapter, especially the "usuratonkachi" panel at the end--it was a great way to show that the relationship between Sasuke and Naruto has been repaired.

I'm actually kind of interested to see what will happen to Naruto and Sasuke's missing arms. With a few rare exceptions like Haku, hand-seals require two hands to perform, so unless they get replacements of some sort, Naruto and Sasuke won't be able to be ninja anymore. The most likely possibility is that Sakura will regenerate the missing limbs for them, although personally I think it would be pretty awesome for Kankurou to make puppet prosthetics for them like the one Chiyo had.

As much as I love Itachi, the panel where Sasuke was comparing him to Naruto did fall a little flat for me. To me, the two characters are very different--Naruto's so enthusiastic and straightforward, while Itachi was always calm and reserved and kept his real feelings hidden most of the time. I guess he was talking about their determination?

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geekgirl62 November 1 2014, 15:19:35 UTC
I think Sasuke was referring to how Itachi and Naruto were sort of "role models" he followed rather than suggesting they were the same type of people.

EDIT: Role models is the only word I could think of, but I'm not being literal here.

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senior_witch November 1 2014, 23:27:34 UTC
I think they will both survive thanks to Sasuke's Rinnegan, which is still functional, even though Sasuke's eye has been closed throughout the chapter. Naruto will then make their hands regrown.

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meganinhiding November 1 2014, 19:33:07 UTC
While this chapter is getting a lot of love from the fandom its not exactly universal; I've seen a few voices on tumblr that feel this final fight shit all over 690 chapters of Sasuke's development and I find myself feeling the same way. My biggest complaints tend to be about Sasuke's journey rather than the destination though ( ... )

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senior_witch November 2 2014, 11:55:49 UTC
To me it's like "okay, we beat you up, so that you are really angry at us so that other people perceive you as crazy and bad at self-control, and then we will offer to "heal" you so that you can learn self-control and become more acceptable. Aren't we nice ( ... )

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meganinhiding November 2 2014, 16:36:45 UTC
I once heard a theory that after Part 1 Kishimoto deliberately wanted to make Sasuke more unlikeable because he was much more popular than Naruto. If so he got the opposite reaction from me that he wanted in his audience; I gave up on the manga after Karin's stabbing because I didn't like where Sasuke was headed and I didn't really care about the rest of Team 7 and Pain's rhetoric bored me.

I think the main problem is that Kishi has some characters that he intends to put in redemption arcs but he has them go too far. The arguably most glaring example is Obito who Naruto describes as "the coolest guy" or Itachi who Hashirama says is a better shinobi than he is. Than he redeems them through sad flashbacks and/or a speech from Naruto because he's the Child of Prophecy.

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senior_witch November 2 2014, 23:25:56 UTC
Really? At TV-Tropes he is called a "base breaker", meaning there's people who like him and people who hate him, but few in between. Also, he used to be the trope namer of "Americans hate Sasuke", but now the trope is named Americans hate Tingle. Maybe a brooding character is less popular in the US than in Japan, but I know too little about either country's culture.

I thought Sasuke more interesting than Naruto, who was too perfect for my taste, and also, I had grown up with the ideal of the child/person who smiles in the face of injustice and and had run into the manga just when I had rejected that ideal.

I guess the redemption arcs don't work for me because my idea of good and evil differs greatly from Kishimoto. I think that Konoha is badly in need of redemption, but this won't happen in the remaining two chapters.

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senior_witch November 1 2014, 20:39:12 UTC
Thanks for the review, and I hope it's okay I answered in your stead to geekgirl. Please correct me if I misunderstood you.

To me the chapter was hardly readable. I only clicked through it and read what I could read without scrolling down. What I disliked most was the fact that suddenly it's all again about rivalry and competition, which is really trivial imo. Both boys have suffered so much in their lives that they should not care any more about being better than the other for the sake of being better than the other (while of course it matters to be stronger than your opponent when you are engaged in a fight for life and death.)

Like meganinhiding I am disappointed by Sasuke's character arc. It would make sense if Sasuke's family died in an earthquake, but this is not the case. They were victims of a crime. Then of course it makes little sense that Sasuke feels relieved when he feels reminded of his family when he sees Naruto's warmth. Naruto (and Kakashi and Sakura) should not replace his family, but it should be made clear that mourning is ( ... )

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meganinhiding November 2 2014, 02:33:58 UTC
I would've loved it if Naruto and Sasuke had simply outgrown their rivalry over time instead of resolving it with a confrontation to establish dominance. I too have felt like the narrative faulted Sasuke for not immediately and permanently replacing his family with Team 7 though what really bothers me is the bond with Naruto being exalted over anyone else; no other person, even from Team 7, is allowed to infringe on Naruto's property. I would've preferred for Sasuke for Sasuke to form attachments to Team Taka, even wary and distrustful relationships with Obito, Orochimaru or Madara. Its just that Kishi wanted him to be a lone wolf with no bonds except for Itachi and Team 7.

At least this was a quick fight and although we're disappointed at least we're in good company.

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senior_witch November 2 2014, 11:31:01 UTC
I have written several SasuNaru-fanfictions, but even though it would be nice to see more about Sasuke's relationships with other people (including his family, even though they're dead), because having Naruto as his only important person makes him depend on Naruto (at least if he does not cut this bond as well.) But what's much more important is the fact that this ends with Sasuke being all wrong and Naruto being all right, so that it's Sasuke who has to give up his way of thinking and accept Naruto's way of thinking. In RL, a therapist, lover or friend who behaves like this is in all likelihood an abusive person.

I don't care so much about different "Philosophies" having to be combined, but rather about the fact that Konoha is definitely not all right and that this is not mentioned.

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meganinhiding November 2 2014, 17:04:46 UTC
I think Naruto is an example of what tv tropes refers to as a Black Hole Sue, http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlackHoleSue

Minato and Kakashi can't be the ones to get through to Obito it has to be Naruto, Hashirama can't inspire the troops it has to be Naruto, Killer B and Hachibi can't be the communications hub for the Bijuu it has to be Naruto, Sasuke can't change or have rational ideas concerning the village system because that would diminish Naruto though I think any character would have this problem if they were the lead.

I wish Konoha had been the final villain; instead the Uchiha massacre and the Hyuuga incident are plot devices to give motives to antagonists.

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hymnia November 3 2014, 01:35:35 UTC
I liked this chapter. It’s by no means a perfect resolution, but I felt like it did give satisfactory closure to the relationship between Naruto and Sasuke, at least. I’m not going to argue with those of you who didn’t feel that way. These things are pretty subjective and personal. I just want to put my voice out there as a reader who felt like the chapter hit the right emotional notes. It worked for me ( ... )

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