I disagree. The problem with this is that not everyone is a Naruto or Sasuke fan. 1st half of Naruto up to about Pain was more about outsmarting your opponent and came down to who was better prepared for the fight which lent a feeling of the battles being more personal. A real sense of unpredictability of how the fight would end kept me, at least, engaged from start to finish of a match.
Once Naruto and Sasuke became as powerful as they did, all other characters baring God-tier opponents could stand a chance and the only god tier opponents now are Otsutsuki. Other characters that people may have liked now have no real relevance in a match against either of them.? Any sense of them possibly loosing is extremely minimal. When they go into battle, the emphasis is less on being prepared or outwitting your opponent and more on a display of great giant avatars and display of power clashes.
When Naruto or Sasuke show up, there isn’t a question of can they win, but which OP techs they are going to use to win. Some like that sort of stuff and that’s ok, but it is also a major concern for a large number of others who would have like to have seen their favorites be more included in the grand theme of things beside being cheerleaders for the only two that really matter anymore
Fair enough, but I disagree for certain reasons.
I understand that people want to see their faves shine and be represented in the major battles. However, I feel that for people whose faves aren't main characters, there is a certain degree of realism you need to go in with when setting your expectations for these characters.
I'm not even just talking about power either. I'm sorry to say, but some characters just don't have much place getting a lot of representation, and a lot of it has to do with how the story is written (from thematic and plot point standpoints, not even necessarily just power). To explain what I mean, here is an example:
Take Rock Lee for instance. He's a cool character and all. However, even if you ignore power levels for a minute, what does Rock Lee's character personally have to do with just about anything that is relevant to the plot? He has no personal grudges or connections to Orochimaru (whose activities were a major plot point in part 1 and early part 2). He has no personal relationship or care about Sasuke (and any fan of the Naruto series knows how big the "bring Sasuke back" plot was for the longest time). He has no relationship to the bijuus, or akautski, or the Otsutsuki, etc... He's not a jinchuuriki. He has no connection to the Uchiha clan or the truth about Itachi (if you wanna talk about some of Sasuke's major plot points). The list goes on and on.
Why then, would he just all of a sudden get all this representation in the final fights against the final villains? It just doesn't make much sense.
This doesn't just apply to Lee either. This applies to many of the faves that you say that people want to see.
Sakura, Neji, Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Gaara, etc...
Also, notice that this whole explanation has just about nothing to do with power levels?
You see, I have for a long time felt that people erroneously blame power levels for bad writing and certain characters not getting shine.
However, I assert to you that it is not the power levels' fault.
Rather, it is the fault of the fact that Kishi pretty much wrote Naruto in a way where if a character doesn't have much personal connection to the main plot points, then there is not much room for them to develop and they pretty much get no shine.
This has continued even more strongly into the Boruto series. Why do you think Sarada is an irrelevant side character? Is it because of power levels? No! I mean, it's not like Boruto is so much stronger than her. All of team Konohamaru are more or less on par with each other, and there are reasonable debates that suggest both that Boruto is stronger than Sarada, and that Boruto is weaker than Sarada.
What makes Sarada so irrelevant is that she has no issues of her own to flesh out (not since the baby mama drama of Gaiden), and more importantly, she lacks connection to Kara and the Otsutsuki (whereas Boruto has the karma seal, Otsutsuki power in the form of the jougan, and the actual prophecies/attention of several Otsutsukis such as Toneri, Momoshiki, and even Urashiki at the end of episode 65).
You see what I mean? The Boruto vs Sarada battle of relevancy (not power) is a prime example of how it's not the power levels, but simply the way that the story is written and the way in which focus is distributed, that keeps people's faves from getting any shine.
The power levels simply come as a natural result as the story progresses, and those who are relevant receive said high power levels.
The error in many fans' thinking is the notion that power levels make certain characters irrelevant, when really it's the other way around:
Being irrelevant, leaves certain characters weak.
There is also another point that I feel strongly about, but I will make a thread about that at some point.
