naruto Naruto Shippuden Episode 215 Discussion

[ben0119]

Stop with the flashback padding this shit out.

Iruka should have been more prominent.

Hahaha that dirty look from Sasuke.

This whole thing with Naruto and the Nine Tails is so retarded and makes no sense.  Why treat him like shit for nothing he did?  The Hokage and everyone else allows this?  And why was he not adopted by someone?

Make you my boyfriend, I mean rival.  Was that a love declaration?

[ben0119]

So was that the "ninja inner world" thing?  Like we see with the Nine Tails and when Sasuke absorbed Orochimaru?  But why would chidori/rasengan clash initiate that?

[rpgamer]

When you're flashing back to something that happened just a few episodes ago, you know you're going too far with that shit.

That said, while the flashbacks were still too much this episode, I didn't mind quite as much as they depicted the contrast between Naruto and Sasuke. It was a bit heavy handed, but at the same time, it's pretty damned insightful for Naruto. He wasn't so entirely caught up in the starry eyed "He's so cool" that everyone else saw. He didn't know everything, but he knew there was a hidden pain there.

Obviously the end results are in the extremes, but the underlying theme of revenge was put to good use, I think. Naruto knows that as he came into his power, he could've easily turned into a bullying ass getting back at everyone for the way he was treated. There was probably a time in his life that he thought about it a lot. And after his fight with Pain, and the thinking he's had to do lately, it actually feels a bit natural that he'd reach this point, where he sees how their lives could've been different, and it's not even about saving Sasuke as much anymore. It's just about getting the cycle of revenge to stop.

Admittedly, killing him would probably also accomplish that goal. There's not really anyone left that would probably get revenge for Sasuke at this point. But, y'know. Principle of the thing.