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"What?!?!"
says the majority of you.
"Not a chance! Naruto lives and becomes Hokage."
Well thank you majority of people, but I hope you'd at least be gracious enough to let me show you why this is the way it will end, and why it should...
says the majority of you.
"Not a chance! Naruto lives and becomes Hokage."
Well thank you majority of people, but I hope you'd at least be gracious enough to let me show you why this is the way it will end, and why it should...
Kishi's Inspritation: Not just Japanese Folklore
In order to understand "why" I came to this conclusion I must first explain "how" I came to it...
Technology has democratized literature. It is very difficult to write a story today without dipping into a little bit each culture. I am writing my dissertation on Old English literature and noticed many of the themes and symbols in Old English stories (especially Anglo-Saxon) are very similar to that of Naruto. For those unfamiliar, some commonly known stories are "The Wanderer", " Judith", "Beowulf", "Hymn of Caedmon" and then a little later, "Cantebury Tales." In fact, J.R Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, drew inspiration from these stories.
A few things that are very common in English literature are...
- Christian values from biblical stories were all very prominent (I will show you why this is important).
- The "cycle" of revenge. When a loved one is killed, it would be dishonorable to not avenge their death.
- Death is inevitable, no matter how great you become, in the end, death will catch up to you.
The Importance of Stories from the Bible
Old English authors used themes from the Bible (sometimes very directly) in the stories they wrote. This was in many ways though, very ironic, for the Bible preaches forgiveness and peace while their stories reflected quite the opposite. It was a time where these people had just recently been converted to Christianity and were still holding to the, "old ways". One story used prominently from the Bible was the story of the brothers "Cain and Abel". For those who don't know this story. Cain murders his brother Abel and is forced into exile, wandering the world aimlessly for the rest of his days. It is said that his descendents are cursed forever, in fact the monster Grendel, from Beowulf, was said to have been a descendant of Cain. Cain's bloodline is seen by these people as "cursed"
So lets recap....
Cain betrays his brother Abel.... The Elder and Younger Son...
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Their descendents are cursed forever...
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Killing their friends for power...
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And betraying their brothers (as their ancestor did) for light...
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Cain's descendants, the root of evil. Always the antagonists. The Elders Son's descendants, the root of evil, the antagnoists...
Grendel
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Grendel's Mother
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Obito and Madara
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It was said that even Gollum from LOTR was based on Cain
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Oh, and I searched around, there is no Japanese story that reflects the Uchiha like "Cain and Abel". It undoubtedly influenced the making of this clan.
But this is just the first point in why I think Naruto will ultimately meet his demise. Remember, the Uchiha=Cain's bloodline.
The "cycle" of revenge.
This cycle of hatred or revenge is nothing new to literature. It dates back thousands of years and is seen in almost every culture, an "eye for an eye" as they call it. In english literature alone we see this theme in stories like Hamlet, Widsith, Beowulf, and the story of Finn the legendary Frisian lord.
Hamlet avenges his father by killing his uncle...
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Beowulf avenges Hrothgar by killing Grendel...
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The Danes defeated and killed many of Finn's army, Finn later recipricates...
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The cycle of hatred and revenge is a key component to all of these stories, including Naruto...
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- With all of these stories, a hero must take on the evil in the world (the descendants of Cain) and break the cycle of hatred, but dont worry he always succeeds.
- With Naruto, the Hero (Naruto), must take on the evil in the world (Madara and Obito) and break the cycle of hatred, but dont worry, he will succeed. Which brings me to my last point.
Death is inevitable, no matter how great you become, in the end, death will catch up to you
The main point in EVERY story of Old English is that everyone will die. Not matter how great one becomes, some day, they are going to pass. It is because of this relationship with death that the heroes in these English stories spend their entire lives working to become acknowledged. A hero only lives on through his deeds, but must accept humbly, his imminent death. In fact, those who do not respect death and its power over life are seen as scum and are always the most evil characters. For they do not respect the order of life..
"...Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.” -LOTR
In all heroic stories the hero is constantly reminded of death. Even before he dies, stories are told of heroes before him that passed, and his comrades usually fall along the way.
Beowulf relation:
For instance in Beowulf, whos father passed before he was even born, acknowledges that even he will someday pass as his father did before him and as his friends did in battle. The King Hrothgar warns him that he must graciously accept death and tells the stories of past Kings dying in the line of duty for the betterment of his people.
But there is always a happy ending.
Naruto, our hero, who spends his life trying to be acknowledged and who's father passed before he was born....
Is constantly reminded of death and how heroes have graciously accepted it before him... (Notice all of the good heroes have died)
And those that don't acknowledge their death, are seen as evil...
Our hero must defeat this evil, the cursed descendants...
In order to break this chain of hatred...
^^^^ALL OF THESE EVENTS HAVE HAPPENED IN OTHER STORIES^^^^
Some other final battles..
Naruto said it best himself
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Is constantly reminded of death and how heroes have graciously accepted it before him... (Notice all of the good heroes have died)
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And those that don't acknowledge their death, are seen as evil...
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Our hero must defeat this evil, the cursed descendants...
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In order to break this chain of hatred...
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^^^^ALL OF THESE EVENTS HAVE HAPPENED IN OTHER STORIES^^^^
So, we arrive at the end as it is in all of these stories the hero is faced with his greatest foe, his equal and opposite, the strongest descendant of the cursed bloodline. In order to break this curse, he must battle and defeat his final enemy, breaking the chain of hatred forever.
Some other final battles..
- Hamlet kills his uncle, dies in the process.
- Beowulf defeats the Dragon, is killed by his wounds.
- Finn defeats the Danes, and is killed during the battle
Naruto said it best himself
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In order to break the chain that emcompasses the world, the chain that has resulted in so many deaths, one last death must incur, the death of our Hero, who was finally able to set the world free. It is the best and most appropriate ending, given the way Kishi has written the story.
Oh and by the way. I realize Kishi's main inspiration comes from Japanese folklore, he has been quoted saying this, and many of the names correlate with old stories. What I am saying is the story of the "hero" or Naruto is based on the epic hero of old english literature, not of Japanese folklore.
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