You are still confusing saving Sasuke (from darkness), with saving his life.
Naruto has already said that he is willing to fight to the death (for both of them) to stop Sasuke from attacking the Leaf village.
This is what I'm trying to say. He can still save Sasuke even if he dies. I believe I have said it before. It all boils down to the definition of save. Right now Naruto saying he will save Sasuke but save him from what? Its not save his life. If its saving him from loneliness, there was alot of times where Naruto and Sakura approached him but he downright rejected them. If the definition of save is that, then he will definitely survive in the end and live with team 7 to destroy his loneliness. But now he is obsessed with revenge. That is what Naruto is trying to save him from. His obsession. Basically in star wars terms, the "dark side". By this definition it is very possible to save him from revenge but still end up dying.
That was the entire point of my post. It's not so much about whether Sasuke dies or not. It's about whether he dies a villain (The dark side) or if he redeems himself and then dies (The light side). If it's the first option, then it will be a very bittersweet victory, because even though Naruto might have been able to defeat Madara and bring peace to the world, he will also also have been forced to kill his best friend and he would also have been unable to save him from the darkness. I don't think that anyone would blame him though, since at this point everyone has more or less given up on Sasuke and is quite convinced that he is a lost cause. In the end, Naruto would just have to accept that Sasuke chose his own path and so with the help of his friends and teammates, he would eventually be able to get over his "failure" and move on. If it's the second option, then Naruto will of course be sad that Sasuke is gone, but at the same time he will also be happy that he was able to help him let go of his anger and acknowledge him as a friend. So really, it's more about saving Sasuke's "soul", not Sasuke himself.
Vader and Sasuke are very different people, though. Vader originally wanted to be a good person, but found himself dominated by the superior will of the Emperor (due to the dark side). So Vader found redemption for killing millions of people and almost all of the Jedi by saving his son. (Which is actually pretty poor writing, as there are lots of evil people who will fight for their own family.)
Sasuke, on the other hand, has a massive inferiority complex due to Itachi's mind games. Anyone weaker than Sasuke is mocked as being worthless. Anyone of equal or greater strength makes Sasuke angry, jealous, and depressed. One way or the other, Sasuke considers them a threat to him, a threat that must be killed or dominated. That's why I think, ultimately, Sasuke *must* die (for the story), because the only way he can let go of his hatred is if he no longer has a reason to fight. If he is dying, then Naruto is no longer a threat to him, and Sasuke can finally acknowledge him. (I'm not saying Naruto will kill Sasuke. If Naruto were to kill Sasuke, then everything you said in the first quote would be true.)
It is true that Sasuke and Vader are very different, but I still believe that there are some similarities in their respective character arcs. Like you said, Vader started out as a good person, but eventually turned evil, however Sasuke also started out as a good guy (before the Uchiha massacre). Afterwards he became introverted and obsessed with power so that he could kill Itachi and thereby "restore" his clan. Vader felt ostracised from the rest of the jedi order and thus his only solace was in his wife, Padme. However due to his nightmares about her dying during childbirth, he became obsessed with obtaining the power to stop that. In both cases, what ultimately lead both Sasuke and Vader down the path of darkness was love. Sasuke's love for his clan and Vaders love for Padme. Orochimaru preyed on Sasuke's feelings of hatred for Itachi and The Emperor preyed on Vaders strong desire to keep Padme from dying. In the end, both gave in to the temptation and thus began their journey towards darkness. It should be noted however that unlike Vader, I don't believe that Sasuke's ultimate plunge into darkness was caused by Orohicmaru but instead by Madara. Up until his final confrontation with Itachi, Sasuke's primary motivation was his hatred and his desire to restore his clan's honour. But afterwards, when he learned the truth about Itachi and the Uchiha massacre, the love that he felt for his brother when he was little became his motivation for exacting revenge upon Konoha.
It's also funny how you should mention that Vader's redemption for killing so many people (and Jedi's) essentially came from saving one life (the life of his son). In a way, if Luke had been able to bring him back with him, I really doubt that there would have been much of a place for him in the New Republic. His crimes were simply too numerous and too severe to simply be forgotten just like that, at least not without an appropriate sentence. That's also how I see Sasuke ending up. Even if he does return to the "light side" by the end of the manga, that doesn't change to fact that the rest of the ninja world still wants him dead, or at the very least imprisoned for life. So perhaps, just like Vader, death really is the only option left for Sasuke. As long as he dies as a "good guy".
But I guess, we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
Edited by TerrorKing, 09 October 2011 - 12:29 PM.
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