It is a very legit excuse. Your post just solidified it. Note, that most of the characters you just listed were, at one point, villains. Villains have a character development advantage. Villains, being the enemies the MC has to beat, or convince to turn, usually end up with development of some sort. They cannot be equated to a side character, which acts as a support, whereas the villains have a huge focus.
I will give examples like J-man, Gaara, Tsunade, Gai but then i will get the reply of "they got too much focus compared to Hinata".
A good one would be Yahiko then.
Though i do not like these character comparasions. A character can be judged by their own instead of "looking better/worse compared to this or that".
Also, the villains that lost their villain status and reverted to side characters got bland real fast. Take Neji and Garra for example. As villains, they had very complex characters that made them great, but when they became side-characters, they became one-note characters.
I can agree to that, but the "good guy" examples of mine above can still stand here.
To make your point, you need to use side characters that have never been anything else, like Lee and Tenten, and they're pretty much one-note characters like Hinata and Sakura.
To start off, i have nothing against characters which are:
-support-satellite type
-one-note (not 1D but the ones who have a powerful revolving point)
Hence the character in my avy (Takao) is a satellite type but he is my fave from KnB. I seem like a hater to those archtypes, i am not but i look at how they are handled.
Anyway really, Tenten?
Now i will come ot the be as biased one (as Lee is my fave) but he is not a one note character, if he was all about something (in this case hardwork) he could be but his relationship with Gai and side interactions with characters like Neji, Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara makes him more than one-note.
Note, that I don't see anybody hating on Ten Ten despite her remarkably bland character. Why? Because she doesn't have much screen time to get old, that's why.
Because she had like 10 panels...I do not dislike Hinata for lack of panels.
Note that Hinata has never really had any focus, but that Naruto was around, so she didn't even have the chance to develope because she's always off-screen.
The things mattered about her for the sake of story were Naruto related, that's why. Her revolving point is halting her development while it should have improved her.
Heck, one could argue that Hianta and Lee are very similar. I'm serious. Both are low-skill hard-work people, but the reason why some like you like Lee better is probably because he gives a very visible standing and give a power trip while Hinata has not really had a full-scale fight to show what she's got.
That's like saying "interview with the vampire and twilight are pretty similar since they are both about vampires, if one likes one of them s/he should like another". No one of them is actually good while the other is twilight, one common point does not make 2 characters identical.
And me liking a character because of power? I never knew i gave such impression about myself. I always strongly disagreed with dumbasses who likes a character because of power. And if i would base my faves over power i would pick someone who is not Lee.
I disagree strongly. There's a crap ton of things to like about part 2. I personally like it more than part 1. Part 2 was when the development of the MCs finally started to kick in while Part 1 was pretty much only about K11 with a bit of Naruto and Sasuke thrown in. Part 1 was the set up, part 2 is the actual manga moving along.
I did not say i disliked part 2. A good while does not refer to whole part 2. I think it have been going downhill since Pain arc, the whole Kaguya arc was garbage.
No. Not a chance. Sakura had none of that potential. Sorry, but Sakura has always been an "I wish" character where as Guy and Lee have been "I will" characters.
She could grow from being shallow to deeper regarding to what will she be. Being that "normal" person with few standpoints and no visible disabilities, still "nothing special" Sakura could be any of us. Her goals would be more than wishing and become going for it (which happened to an extent). Whatever the route author may take her.
No, you can definitely judge a base. Potential is potential, and Hinata had potential if given the opportunity to be fleshed out like Guy was. Sakura had a TERRIBLE base. A simple fangirl that was annoying and cruel, and nothing else, but moans about how she can't do stuff. As I've said before, she's an "I wish" character as opposed to an "I will" character.
Well i find being dislikable to be a good base in a way. From annoying to cruel, she could be more understanding, mature, kind through the hardships and lessons of life. C'mon, manga has loads of chars who were evil but became good guys after getting talked, she could change to be more likable at time. Being a good person is not building a good foundation for a character.
Again, i do not like the "couldwouldshould" talk because they did not happen.
Naruto vs Sasuke had a good base with all the hype and 2 main characters but i did not like the battle for ex. If a potential is not used at all it does not give result.
We can speak of the unused potential, but we can not pretend like that potential existed.
For example "if Quorthon did not die Bathory could be a much bigger band". I can say that. But due to that, i do not go over and say "due to potential they could have been bigger than Iron Maiden Bathory>Iron Maiden".
Anyway i am out for today. Too tired and my head hurts.