Sorry big fan of the War arc. You can take the Gaara arc out and have almost no change but there are so many pivotal moments in the War that are needed and add to the story. If anything people expected too much from the war.
You are pretty obviously biased tho, being a Neji fan. That's just my ideal version of the arc, not saying it has to be that- just how i'd do it perfectly. To me it's definitely the only bad story arc in Shippuden, lots of padding, lots of running through generic forests, has the problem where people are sent out and then their backup and then their backup get backup (The anime Guren arc is the worst for this tho) and they also killed Sasori which is a silly decision all-round. We learned nothing about the Sand Village, the clone battles were boring and the only character handled maturely was Granny Chiyo who died.
No the war arc has too much Asspull and too much Inconsistencies. It's has so much letdown because it either one has too many SUBPLOTS and not killing off important characters all the other wars have been described to be bloody and
grim, while this war, which is supposed to be LARGEST war the world has ever fought, has no major deaths and rising the stakes skipped fights and is just used to hype Naruto and give free power
ups left and right. This indirectly makes the past wars worse, because the current war doesn't
look ugly at all, you can't relate.
Kishi should have focused more on the pain of fightning your loved ones as zombies. The war
should have felt grim, and ugly. And the Edo's should have been the spotlight of war, instead of
being trolled and sealed in one chapter/episode and the IZANAMI was TROLL FEST & B/C stopping
the war ? MY ASS.
Also we should have seen the Konoha 11 and development and being the frontlines by fightning
in the war. We saw the growth of Naruto and Sasuke, but we didn't see anything from Konoha 11
until that last Juubi larvas asspull fight. I wanted the younger GEN improved from surpassing
the pervious GEN, i wanted to see Neji fight his Edo father, i wanted to see the edo tensai
legends living up to there names esp HANZO.
Tobi revealtion should of been JAWDROPPING,THRILLER AND SOMETHING THAT THE NARUTO COMMUNITY
WILL NEVER FORGET AND MAKE SENSE NOT THIS PREDICTABLE IS LIKE KISHIMOTO LITERALLY INSULTING OUR
INTELLEGENCE ESP HIS OLD FANS THAT KNOW THE DIFFERENCES.
Also Tobi and Madara should have used Rinnegan more such as the animal path, I wanted to see the
juubi used some GOLDLIKE POWERS TO BRING DESPIRE TO THE WORLD IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASKED FOR ?
Too many powerups make the series lame and cheesy speeches to redeemed villans, because instead of wondering about strategy, you wonder how the character
will get a new power out of his ass to match the villain. Training>Random Asspulls.?
There's was almost no battle tactics and good battle mechnanic as it used to back in part 1. Now in this arc its all about linage power and genetic asspull Bijuu bomb explosive powerups up the Wazoo!!
Gaara rescue arc has alot of better battles than this crappy war.
Kishimoto doesn't have the ballz to killing off important characters such as Gai who could'v contribute the best death in this war arc but income JESUS Naruto saves him and talking Shit like "Oooo I can do anything" . This shows a Huge disrespect to Gai character Rock Lee even gave him an honor and lived up as a true Underdog Ninja to carry on his own will which he was ready for it, look what happened after Neji death, Lee would've been able endure all this pain he had to suffer. BUT NO, Naruto just can't bear to see anyone of his comrades dying even fodders ninja.
It's obvious you're Kabuto fanboy but guess what I'm not complaining you know why, cause I like Kabuto so much I find you so amusing because the fact that you're not complaining how Kabuto trolled by Asspull Izanami.
You mistake me for judging me:
1. I may be a Neji fanboy but I hold this strong passion with this series, I liked almost all secondary character more than Main Character.
2. I'm not angry because of Neji death, but the fact that Kishi handles the most trollicious and worst way for him to die all in less than a single chapter. I don't mind him dieing so long it handles the most meaningful way to die.
BTW, Guren arc is one of the best filler arc by far.