I loved the whole war arc.
I loved the whole series.
Here is my list of important things that happened in the arc, especially during the Kaguya fight.
1.The healing of Kakashi
2.The redemption of Obito
3.The end of 1,000 year cycle of war
4.The birth of a new era
5.The revelation of the NV as a vast and wondrous place
6.The revelation of the history of the era of ninjitsu
7.The revelation of the source of all powers in NV
8.Acceptance of the tailed beasts
9.Team 7 reunited
10.The lesson of teamwork is finally understood
11.The revelation of the source of purpose to IT/Zetsus
12.Naruto achieves his goal of becoming greater then the Hokage, actually greater then all kage
13.Naruto and Sasuke rise to the top of the world, even to the top of their era!
14.The return of the sexy no justu
15. Oh yeah, and the revelation of Kaguya, the source of all chakra, and the terror of her tyranny
16. AAAANNND...Naruto happens to save his best friend and become Hokage, find love and have children
17.Kakashi's generation is not overshadowed by the previous or the next as Kakashi becomes the sixth!
18.Kakashi and Obito become dear friends again
19.Kakashi and Obito team up one last time to help save EVERYONE!!!
20.Rin forgives Obito
Here are some general defense points I have in regards to the end of the series:
1. The structure of the story is a spiral, as the reader is moved to the end of the story it speeds up, just like looking at a whirlpool or spiral. The final fight to redeem friendship was only a few chapters but so intense and then WHAM we're pulled out to the edge of a new cycle in the whirlpool as we meet Bolt and his friends.
2.Kakashi and Obito merging at the end made total sense because of the theme of "two eyes together" and it was only together that they had the skills to create the PS
3.Kaguya was single minded, and corrupt. A moment of compassion when she cries is replaced by her rage. She spent a 1,000 years sealed away and was unable to grow as a person or to even conceive of her actions as wrong. She fit more into the Kakuzu/Hidan camp of villains, very different from the Nagato/Obito/Madara camp of villains.
4.Kaguya and Black Zetsu were not just individuals but also a metaphor of the entire history that Naruto was trying to change.
5.It was more important for Madara to be destroyed by his ambition instead of Naruto. Madara was correct about the hypocrisy of the village system and its love of violence, he had good purpose but he was tainted by the love of his own genius and his lack of trust i.e. his ambition, which is what destroyed him.
6.Love and compassion are shown to be the most important traits of the new era, not power and control.
7. The pairing of N/H and S/S makes total sense. Naruto and Hinata need each other as they are both in need of encouragement and love. Sasuke needs Sakura because she is so forgiving. Sakura does two things: promises a home just like the one he lost and forgives him for going off the rails. Sakura is a healer in all aspects of her life. Both relationships are perfect.
8. When I was going through the war arc week to week I found myself becoming impatient and tired of endless battles. I missed the days of laughing at the bath house, eating Ichiraku ramen, watching Choji eat seven servings of BBQ, Sakura and Ino battling it out for Sasuke, Guy and Lee laughing, crying and working together, Kakashi reading make out tactics and all of the other wonderful village moments that helped all of our favorite characters grow.
At first I was miffed that it was only endless battles, I mean three years of the same damn war arc, how much patience am I supposed to have?!!? But then I realized something; Kishimoto made me miss Konohoa, he made me miss home and made me realize how it might feel during war to long for peace and familiarity. So when chapter 700 finally came out I found myself filled with joy! A rebuilt Konohoa, a new generation and a whole new world filled with computers and a giant city, so cool! I sort of wanted Kishimoto to go through and have 100 chapters of everyone just hanging out, but then I realized, I had imagined most of it. I knew the characters so well I didn't need Kishi to micro manage my experience.
9.The main problem with a series this popular that lasts for as long as it did is that everyone has an idea of how it should end and what it should be, and there is no way for one person and their editors to come up with a solution to match millions of imaginations.
10.The Kaguya arc was not an ending, in fact nothing at the end of Naruto indicated there was an end, it kind of indicated a lot of new avenues that are similar to the avenues discovered in DBZ after DB i.e. aliens and afterlife. What was that castle doing in those weird dimensions? What is everyone doing in the afterlife? Do we really think Kaguya is the only one of her kind? etc. etc.
My feeling is that it will be expanded upon in the mini-series/novels/movies and most likely will develop into a new era story arc in 2016.
Also, as far as retcon, plot no jutsu, deux ex machina, and blah blah blah, I don't buy it. The story has always been about how different ideologies work through different personalities to change cycles, not about the technicality of magic powers, which is always completely improvable because it is not real at all, it is in fact fiction.
I can't logic out fireballs or why certain characters have certain fireballs or magic eyes or whatever, but I can logic out that through the War/Kaguya/Final Fight Arcs that we saw the rise of love, compassion and collaboration overturn a 1,000 years of war and mistrust.
