naruto 509

[askerian]

Haven't been extremely interested in the latest arc -- Gai and Kisame don't intertest me much, and Konan even less, but hey. Sometimes...

Marada is a bored old troll with a grudge, who hides it under a 4channesque LOL-face. Sometimes he entertains me. I have to admit that the "ah, Konan-chan, you silly woman you" vibe he was giving off this week really irritated me. (It reminded me of freakin' Aizen from Bleach at his most fake-friendly haughty and I have to say i'm pretty allergic to anything even remotely associated with His Transcendental Butterflied Majesty by now.)

Konan getting to actually injure Madara and break his friggin mask ? WOOHOO. He can bleed! She even got him pretty good! :D :D :D >:D

I can't help but be a little frustrated at the fact that she wanted to commit double suicide, because if she dies, who will protect the country Yahiko and Nagato died for? But yeah, she can tell that Madara is the bigger threat and she's willing to die to take him out, that counts for a lot. But since we haven't seen much of her struggle to reach that conclusion it feels to me as if she's a little too willing to die. It's just my feeling upon reading it, I don't have solid evidence for that opinion... and heck, I love Heero and the bastard is suicidal for over half the series, it's not a bad trait in itself. Just, I don't know, in Konan it makes me feel like she's being defeatist and that makes me sadface a bit, and since I was already a little hnnn that she was part of the trend of women whose only goal in life is to support the men in their life...

My logic is skewed here, because she's not even close to a main character, so of COURSE there wouldn't be chapter after chapter where she gets her own subplot. That's a really silly expectation.

Eh, she's an interesting character, but she doesn't interest me. Kinda like Kakashi, who is fascinating in all his issues! I'm just not being pinged. Oh well.

This chapter was still MWAHAHA TAKE THAT. But of course the old troll will zip to safety at the last second... I just really REALLY really friggin DO NOT WANT him to magically shrug the damage she did off with a quick "i'm just that speshul, look at that secret technique!! I call it the Asspull". Aizen did it and look where it got him. First as a giant penis and now as a friggin butterfly. Lamest Last Boss ever. u.u


... still, thank you Konan for bringing up the heavy-handed symbolism into the open, what with calling Naruto the Light and Madara the Darkness out loud. In case someone out there had missed it. Somehow. Ten-year-long potty break maybe? XD;

Man but Naruto's charisma must be amazing in person. I admit I don't quite *feel* it, safely on the other side of the page, but with those results the "I represent all that is good and noble and pure!!" vibes are probably off the charts. It's too bad the funny quirks and not so good, bratty sides he used to have are getting less and less screentime as he transforms himself into a messiah-type. I don't... mind, exactly -- he was always headed toward that archetype, and it's not like he handwaved his brattiness and opened his mind and heart to the plight of the whole world in one day, he's been working on it for years manga-time. But I'm still hoping for down time funnyness or arguing with friends or something at some point, because that's what makes him loveable.


edit: i have to admit I don't know yet what to think about madara's assertion that he gave Nagato the rinnegan, what with it having been presented as a natural inherited bloodline limit... then again it was never stated out loud, just assumed, but Nagato's parents couldn't defend themselves either -- but then why the fuck would have Madara chosen a child of civilians to bestow his all important rinnegan on (why did he let it leave his control, did it need to mature inside a person so he took it out of his Wall of Eyes and went picking some cowardly kid at random to switch eyeballs on? did he knock up Nagato's mom with some precious rinnegan bloodline sperm and a turkey baster one night? What?), and why was the fact that they met before Nagato even started becoming well known along with Yahiko and Konan as young fighters for their country not even vaguely hinted at? nrgh. I don't know yet if i'm going to love this curveball or hate it.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Madara: u mad? x3

I have to admit, this chapter DID explain the Akatsuki cloaks. Although it wasn't that relevant.
Still, when Konan parts the paper like the Red Sea? AWESOME. The last large scale attack done by a female character must have been... when Temari rescued Shikamaru in the first series and she destroyed an entire forest. I'm a sucker for massive scale attacks.

I've been sticking with the anime recently; there's been two episodes of filler where it's apparently all about Iruka as a new teacher dealing with Naruto. Shikamaru seems to get inordinate amounts of screentime :/ Also, Sasuke's VA missed the memo about his character being eight.

[askerian]

God yes, half his dialogue this week could have been replaced with "lol u mad?", I swear. DX Man but when he admitted he'd underestimated her i was a bit happy. And yeah, the large scale was nice ^^ I was always partial to Sakura punching large areas of ground into rubble myself, but that's not as huge. Mmm epic. *_*

I have to admit I'm skipping this arc. Usually I watch everything -- i watched the years of filler arcs! I watched all the movies! -- but this time... Iruka... I can't. The amount of interest I have in the character is already pretty nonexistent, but when he gets to be shown as a bigoted ass pre-naruto I'm even less interested. I'd be grateful if anyone could tell me if anything worth watching happens, like stuff with the kids -- is it all centered on iruka nonstop? i kinda miss Little Sasuke but ... hrrm.

[(Anonymous)]

There's a small scene with Naruto and Sasuke rival-ing, and we see a shopkeeper shove Naruto out of his mask store and throw stuff at him while a crowd gathers around. Again, for some reason they decided that what this flashback needed was more Shikamaru being unusually energetic and giving-a-crap-ish.

Sasuke also shows up for that bit when Naruto walks past the lake/riv, and when Naruto hears about the massacre, he (Naruto) gets a sad face :-(

Although Sakura and Ino are seen sat together in class and it's kinda cute <3

Iruka isn't exactly /bigoted/, he just follows the advice of a senior teacher to ignore his pranks. To be honest, that's what most teachers would be advised IRL, although yeah in this context it's kinda dickish.
Kakashi shows up as well, although I did skip this scene. I assume he is all 'Naruto is actually a nice kid blahblah he's not the demon etc' because he was sent by the hokage or some shite. His hair is shorter too; it looks wierd.

[nothri.livejournal.com]

Well, there was one important thing established here: If you can be quick enough, you can smack Madara around while he's doing his "I suck" routine....ahem, excuse me. While he's doing his 'eye sucking' routine.

But is it just me, or did she essentially say Naruto was a freaking Mary Sue?

Well, at least she was able to disarm Madara.

[loveandallthat.livejournal.com]

(I followed you here from ff.net.)

I agree that while Konan's an interesting character, I can't care about her too much. She bores me a lot. Plus, I can't be fully interested in anything without Naruto actually in it...

And I like that you brought up the Bleach chapter, because I was thinking "Oh, wow, a suddenly stronger power! How unexpected with this series!" :)

Thanks for being awesome!

[yira-heerai.livejournal.com]

I liked the ending to both Bleach and Naruto this week only because Konan got to part the Paper Sea and Ichigo finally voiced what everyone's been feeling since the Decide arc started. I actually threw my hands up and said "YES! THANK YOU! END THE BITCH."

...I also kind of love the fact that Madara and Aizen both Just Don't Get It. Madara's saying "Naruto's not that damn special." and Konan's saying "Yes, he is."

Aizen thinks that Ichigo lost his powers, that he's nothing and is worth even less and every action Ichigo's done shows that no, he hasn't. In fact, he kind of transcended past the level you are so uuhhh....

I also think that Madara's just talking shit to confuse her re:Rinnegan. He could have had the guys that attacked them (who Nagato supposedly killed) be a genjutsu and done the transplant then but idk, it seems hinky. So I'm mostly calling bullshit on that.

[q99.livejournal.com]

-
Aizen thinks that Ichigo lost his powers, that he's nothing and is worth even less and every action Ichigo's done shows that no, he hasn't. In fact, he kind of transcended past the level you are so uuhhh.... -

Aizen's extra-dumb for having just pulled the same 'you can't sense me' stuff not more than an hour ago!


Madara on the other had, merely doesn't care why Naruto's special in the first place.

[yira-heerai.livejournal.com]

Madara on the other had, merely doesn't care why Naruto's special in the first place.

I think he has to just a little. I mean, Naruto took his most important and long-standing subordinate away from him. With words. It probably won't happen again, but he has to know just what they see in him to turn away from he, Madara, the most ultimately awesome ninja in the world (in his own mind anyway e_e)

[q99.livejournal.com]

He cares some, but knowing someone's personal reasons for defecting isn't *that* important to him, especially if it's some stupid idealism thing.

[explodingfrogs.livejournal.com]

i have to admit I don't know yet what to think about madara's assertion that he gave Nagato the rinnegan, what with it having been presented as a natural inherited bloodline limit... then again it was never stated out loud, just assumed, but Nagato's parents couldn't defend themselves either -- but then why the fuck would have Madara chosen a child of civilians to bestow his all important rinnegan on (why did he let it leave his control, did it need to mature inside a person so he took it out of his Wall of Eyes and went picking some cowardly kid at random to switch eyeballs on? did he knock up Nagato's mom with some precious rinnegan bloodline sperm and a turkey baster one night? What?), and why was the fact that they met before Nagato even started becoming well known along with Yahiko and Konan as young fighters for their country not even vaguely hinted at? nrgh. I don't know yet if i'm going to love this curveball or hate it.

Actually, I'm beginning to suspect that the Rinnegan isn't an inherited bloodline limit--the only people known to have possesed the Rinnegan were the Sage of Six Paths and Nagato, both of whom developed it more or less out of the blue, without any indication that they had any special ancestry. Coupled with the way Konan and Madara talk about it (Madara "giving" it to Nagato, the Rinnegan surviving Nagato's death, Konan "hiding" it somewhere)...well, it just doesn't sound like they're talking about a pair of eyeballs. It sounds more like the Rinnegan is a power that can be passed from shinobi to shinobi, or otherwise contained somehow between incarnations--something like the 27 True Runes from Suikoden, or Exaltations from Exalted, if you're familar with those series.

(I also suspect that this is going to somehow lead up to Naruto gaining the Rinnegan. The storyline is already setting him up as the Ninjassiah; the revelation that the Rinnegan can be passed on through means other than blood inheritance sets off alarm bells in my head.)

[(Anonymous)]

the revelation that the Rinnegan can be passed on through means other than blood inheritance sets off alarm bells in my head.

Um.... is anyone else remembering the whole "I'm stealing your eyes, Sasuke, stealing your eyes" thing? I'm pretty sure a lack of blood inheritance means absolutely nothing when it comes to people having and eye-related power they shouldn't?
Okay, so Naruto wouldn't do that, but do we really know that Sakura wouldn't? Or Tsunade? Or Shizune? Or the billion and a half other people that Naruto has helped and who have a tendency to show up randomly just when he needs them?

[explodingfrogs.livejournal.com]

You'll note that both Sasuke and Itachi are of the same bloodline. Kakashi and Danzou's transplants, on the other hand, were shown to work a lot less well for them and take a lot more out them than a natural-born Uchiha's Sharingan. This is good indication that eye-based bloodline limits are, at the least, severely weakened by transplantation to someone who doesn't share the bloodline.

The way Konan and Madara are talking seems to hint that the Rinnegan doesn't work like this.

[q99.livejournal.com]

Konan hasn't done a lot before, but this chapter is helping make me love her :) She's quite the badass.