Whiteknight
Leaf Village Regular 🍃
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2009
- Messages
- 843
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- 194
5) I would change Minato. His story was pathetic. We hear stories about the third Raikage fighting with the 8-tails for days on end, and all he ended up with is a scratch on his chest. Then we hear Minato who fights the 9-tails for like 5 minutes and gets impaled through his chest. Early in the manga Minato is talked about like a god among men, but his legend keeps getting less and less.
Kushina too. She should have survived and been alive to the present day, where eventually she is killed. Maybe she dies during Orochimaru's invasion or during Pain's invasion. Naruto is being consumed by darkness but the love his mother left for him and the support of his friends keeps him sane.
4) I would take Kaguya, Hagoromo, and that entire little family out of the manga entirely. Kaguya was a terrible enemy. Hagoromo created more questions than he answered, ultimately confusing the entire mythology of the manga. Madara should have been the real enemy because of all his many flaws that run counter to the themes of the manga: Hashirama wanted to entrust dreams to the next generation, Madara wanted to enslave the next generation. People like Jiraya and Minato accept death, but Madara cheats death. Good guys rely on their own power and their friends, while bad guys like Madara, Orochimaru and Kabuto try to steal power for themselves. Good guys make friends. Madara makes a clone army. Madara manipulates people. Madara wants power. See? I would have rewritten the last leg of the manga to be Naruto and Sasuke vs Madara, where Madara is trying to use mental manipulation to turn Sasuke against Naruto. It could have turned into a 3-way battle, where Naruto eventually takes the upper-hand against the other two by relying on his friends and doing things that good guys do.
3) I would change Naruto. The manga keeps trying to set up Naruto and Sasuke as having the same kinds of experiences of loss and abuse, but the two aren't equal at all. Sasuke lost his entire family, including a loving brother that he had to kill with his own hands. Naruto lost a teacher. These are not the same kinds of things. If Naruto had a close childhood friend who died, or a romantic interest who died (I hate to say it, but Hinata fits the bill here) it would bring them a lot closer together. Then, with similar circumstances, we could really contrast the way the two boys respond to their respective tragedies: Sasuke takes the low road, Naruto takes the high road.
Really, when you think about it, the character who is most like Sasuke is Gaara. Gaara never really had a mother and was betrayed by his father. The difference is that Gaara did have some siblings left, so he wasn't all alone. In terms of compare and contrast, Gaara was able to become good because he learned to rely on his friends, where Sasuke became bad because he chose not to accept help from friends. This could have been a much better story, if Naruto was a better reflection of Sasuke.
Naruto should be getting more powerful because he relies on his friends, setting up the final confrontation where Naruto beats Sasuke because Naruto isn't alone like Sasuke wants to be.
2) I would change Sasuke. He's not a proper antagonist. He's not an anti-hero. He wasn't an important character in the manga for hundreds of chapters. His motivations are unclear and always changing. We can easily change Sasuke by first changing Itachi...
1) I would change Itachi. His story makes no sense. He didn't just stop a rebellion, he killed many innocent women and children, something that a real hero wouldn't do. What purpose did it serve to show Itachi is a monster, but he still loves Sasuke anyway? Here is a far better narrative, I think:
Obito and early Akatsuki massacred the Uchiha because sharingan eyes are a threat to control of the tailed beasts. Only Itachi and Sasuke were spared because they were staying with friends or something (Itachi is rare because he has friends outside of the clan). Hiruzen doesn't want the people to be alarmed by Akatsuki, so he asks Itachi to take blame and become a spy. Itachi, under orders, leaves the village as a criminal, and joins akatsuki, telling them he was scapegoated and abandoned by the village. Really, he's a spy looking for revenge. Sasuke, not realizing that Itachi was innocent, spends his life preparing revenge, and eventually kills Itachi in cold blood.
Later, Sasuke learns the truth about Itachi and becomes angry at the village leadership because they hid the truth from him, and allowed him to kill his own innocent brother. THIS is a good reason why Sasuke would be angry through the whole manga and why he wants to destroy the village in revenge. It also sets up a real conflict in Sasuke, where he hates the village leadership, but he wants to continue the good work his brother was doing.
I think this change would have made Sasuke a much more interesting character, would have set Itachi up to be a real hero, and would have made the current conflict more understandable. In the current battle of Naruto vs Sasuke, Naruto would be a person who relies on friendship to become more powerful, but Sasuke is alone (partially to be like Itachi, and also because the village abandoned him and his brother, leading to more feelings of loneliness).
I think the manga could have been done much better this way.
