Sasuke the Good: I wouldn’t say he fluctuates between good and bad. I think it’s closer to say between villian and anti-hero. What has Sasuke done that was good in Part 2? I can think of only four things: killed Orochimaru, killed Deidara, killed Danoz, protected teammates. Five, if want to count Itachi.
I am going throw up a counter argument here and say that killing Orochimaru, Deidara, and Danzou was not exactly his idea anyway. He wasn't going out of his way to kill them or even was looking to kill them specifically. You could argue that they came to him and tried to kill him with Sasuke defending himself. I even remember Sasuke telling Orochimaru he was going to leave because there was nothing more he could teach him.
If you look at it from a certain perspective, Sasuke was the "good guy" in that sense because they came after him.
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Sasuke the Bad: This is the part where I can kind of agree. He has done some villainous things: his attempt on Sakura’s life (thought she tried to kill him first) and his attempt to kill Karin because she became a temporary obstacle. That was supposed to be his jump into villainy and they were bad. Sasuke has also pledged to lay waste to the entire village of Konoha when almost everyone there had no part in the massacre. That’s villainous intent.
Unfortunately, the fans don't want to see him as the villain. Even here many posters claim he is "not the villain" because his past was too tragic, or he didn't do villainous things, or his motives are not so dramatically evil. Even now when I put up the same argument that you have here, they stand by their belief that Sasuke is not villainous. In fact, they think he is still the good guy. I saw him be the villain even before stabbed Karin, but people refuse to see him as such.
Also, compare these two moments. The moment that is now and the moment when he met team 7 again and did that vile laughter about him killing Konoha. Sasuke's tone has certainly changed with Itachi being around him and has once again putting on this "scared little boy" mask...or so as I see it...because he sees Itachi again. He is acting like a little kid demanding answers and if he doesn't get them he throws a tantrum.
This also reflected in the fanbase I see. If Sasuke doesn't get redeemed, some seem to want to throw a tantrum.
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On the other hand, I think of Vegeta who did things far worse than Sasuke in the first two seasons and fans accepted him. However, he fought on the side of good for nearly two and a half seasons (regardless of the reasons why) before his redemption became “official.” Sasuke’s redemption will likely be much quicker (and he won’t spend as much time fighting with the good guys) unless this series is going to on for another five years, so all the crappy things he did will be fresh in the reader’s mind while Vegeta’s were more distant when he was officially redeemed.
But Vegeta is different from Sasuke in what he did over the course of the series. He went from villain, to anti-hero, to good guy. Sasuke went from good guy, to anti-hero, to bad guy. Their decisions are in different directions, but Vegeta was always adamant about his beliefs. Sasuke doesn't know what he wants to do and seems to change tone just because a certain person walks into the scene.
Another thing is, fans were not so easy to forgive Vegeta like you said, but are willing to forgive Sasuke at the drop of a hat? I'd say let him be the villain. Let him get his ass kicked around a few times by the hero, then we can talk about redemption. Think about this too, there was never any scenes where Vegeta specially targeted Bulma, like how Sasuke purposely targets Sakura. So Sasuke has done things that could be deemed worse as well. Did Sasuke succeed? If the hero didn't stop him, he would have. Same with Vegeta if Goku wasn't around.
This is my biggest issue with Sasuke's redemption. People want him to be redeemed why? I see three major reasons why they want his redemption.
1. Being they want Naruto to be the hero and fullfill his goals otherwise he is a failure.
2. Because they like Sasuke as a character and don't want to think of him as the bad guy.
3. Because they want SasuSaku to happen.
The whole redemption thing kind of stops him from being that true villain. It stops people from seeing him as a true villain no matter he does.
Why does Sasuke need to be redeemed in the first place? He doesn't seem to want it, so why give him what he doesn't accept? Another problem with Sasuke's redemption is, in hind sight the more you focus on Sasuke's redemption, the less time Naruto develops as a character. Now, someone is going to argue with me about this, but hear me out. Naruto himself always seems to be stuck behind a line because of Sasuke. He doesn't go after love because of him, he doesn't go after his own true goals because of him, and his conviction that he wants to bring him back is keeping him from maturing into a Hokage level status. Whether or not he succeeds is not really a factor as much as people think. It's because there is no closure. With no closure there is no growth.
Now we focus so much on Sasuke and his trials and tribulations that we ignore Naruto's growth all together. Any growth Naruto gets is short lived and it's a bummer. If we focused less on Sasuke's redemption, then not only would we have more look into Naruto's growth, but Sakura would also have growth too. Which is something at least most of us want. Because we (and Kishi) are stuck looking at Sasuke deciding whether he wants to be a true villain or not, Naruto and Sakura's development get grounded to a halt for those moments.
Let's look at an alternate reality for this. What if Kishi focused more on Naruto? Focused more on his relationship with Sakura and his own views. Imagine how things would be if Sakura said
to his face "No matter what happens, I am with you." She doesn't necessarily have to say "I love you," but just say to him that no matter what happens everything was going to be okay. We show Sakura picking a side and choosing what she wants, there we have her growth and resolve. Naruto, thinks on this and decides that death is not the real end. He doesn't want death, but life and saving everything. Keep him to his views, but understand that he doesn't need to sacrifice himself for the world to be saved. That there are others who need him just as much and that it weighs more than the goals of saving Sasuke. There are other ways to achieve what is needed. There we have growth for him too.
Sakura thinks more about Naruto and we get more NaruSaku scenes. Naruto gets his growth and shows that he can take charge when need to be. He doesn't give up his goals, but just accepts that his goals have a chance of not succeeding. This puts some of our minds to rest on whether or not Naruto will have a global meltdown because Sasuke dies and whether or not Sakura is only going for Naruto because Sasuke is no longer around.
(Actually, he could still fit this in if Sasuke get less focus after this whole ordeal. If the rest of manga is going to continue with Sasuke's view, then we will never see Naruto grow at all. Nor Sakura. Honestly, there is not much else to tell about Sasuke after this. When Itachi finally gives him the answers, his view should remain constant til the end of the manga.)
I don't want to restrict myself thinking that the only way this story
has to end is with Sasuke's redemption and him being alive. I don't want Sasuke to be the revolving factor that determines that the manga has to end this way even though Naruto is the one the manga should be focusing on. I want to keep that open mind. Besides, if we already know how it is going to end as many claim, then everything up to that point is just thought noise and irrelevant.
As a side note, while I am thinking about it:
I think we as posters need to stop the whole "because it is more realistic" argument. I have seen several people use this and I facepalm at it. Not because of the obvious reasons that this is a fictionalized world, but the fact that in the real world bad guys can and sometimes will win. The hero is not always going to get everything he wants or have it happen every way he wants just because he is the hero. In real life, the heroes lose just as much as they save, which in itself makes them heroic. They overcome hardships to continue to believe in better ways. You can say it is more realistic for villains to be certain ways or for something else to be in such a way, but you have apply this to everything if you're going to apply this at all and in real life bad guys can win.
Edited by James S Cassidy, 18 May 2012 - 06:15 PM.