Contribution in a series. It's something I believe can't be replaced by any other character. I.E: Jiraiya and his role. Kakashi and his role. Gaara and his role. Killer Bee and his role. Itachi and his role. Shikamaru and his role. I could go on.
Hinata has never saved Naruto once in this series. She's encouraged him face to face, twice in all 700 chapters. Otherwise she just keeps to herself and twiddles her fingers. Being encouraging is a role anyone could fill. Hinata is not special in that regards.
Her interactions with Naruto are hardly different. Readers do see it through a different tint, however, simply because she has a crush on him.
She, among with most of the other K9's, were there to add life and color to the series. Background characters. Hardly even supporting roles.
Rock Lee was simply an example. It could have been Choji and my point still stands. It could have been Kiba. It could have been Shino. It could have been Tenten, Neji, Ino, Shikamaru, any of his peers. Because Naruto deeply cared for the well being of all his friends. Heck, just people in general.
Rock Lee and Naruto had a much deeper friendship than he ever had with Hinata at that point in the series. Heck, Lee was on the same boat as Naruto and Hinata in the chunnin exam with the whole loser ordeal. Naruto and Lee were both seen as losers and were also rivals for Sakura's affections.
Hinata's feelings for Naruto were nothing more than a crush. You cannot truly be in love with someone you don't even know. Hinata was never close to Naruto. She doesn't know his feelings, his strengths and who he is. She doesn't know about his bond with Sasuke, his struggles as the nine tails holder. Heck, she never even had faith in him. When he was knocked down by Tobi in the forest, she flipped out and Sakura had to scold her for taking her eyes off the enemy and for not having faith in Naruto.
Saying she had a crush is also being generous considering one of the shippuden databooks confirmed her feelings towards Naruto were 'admiration'. You can admire someone a lot without having romantic feelings.
SO no. Hinata was not in love with Naruto. She never even truly knew him. That's just wishful shipper thinking.
Well, according to Kishimoto, Neji only died to make Hinata and Naruto closer. Considering at that point, The Last was already in production, you could say Neji wasn't even meant to die. In fact, I'm 100% certain he was not. His death made the whole Hyuuga branch conflict pointless. In the end, despite his whole character being about defying his own destiny, he fell to that very destiny. So one could argue that the whole scene was pointless.
But that aside, yes it really could have been someone else. Again, could have been Rock Lee. He was close to Neji and he's close to Naruto. That would have made sense as well. It could have made sense for Sakura to snap him out of it as well. Hinata just happened to be near. You could say that it made her character come full circle, being the one to encourage Naruto instead of leeching encouragement by watching him. But that doesn't really forgive the scene afterwards. "Nawto-koon's hand is so big and warm <33333333333" she thinks to herself with Neji's corpse laying before her. Instead of thinking that she'll make sure Neji's death wasn't in vain or something like that, she was too busy fawning over Naruto's hand.
Which yes, makes her a terrible character. Aside from shedding a few tears, she didn't think of Neji at all during the war. The only time she did, was to beg him to save Naruto's life. Which Sakura was already on. The rest of the time, she thought about Naruto, how she wanted to be by Naruto's side, ect. It was literally all about Naruto.
She did not have a unique bond with him. Good grief, there wasn't really even a bond. Naruto barely knew her and the only time they talked was when she tried to help him cheat, when she gave him some medicine and before his fight with Neji. Even then, Naruto hardly considered her a 'friend' until their talk before his fight with Neji. She was just a kind yet weird girl.
It takes two to tango, hun. And there was very little Naruto <-> Hinata bonding. Like I said, it was mostly Hinata ----> Naruto. I wouldn't even say they developed. The only development the two had was that Naruto stopped seeing her as a shy, dark weirdo and as a friend. That's it. He showed zero romantic interest in Hinata and that's why 'The Last' is a thing. Because the pair needed an explanation. If you deny that, then good luck trying to change the mind of 90% of the Naruto fandom. Considering The Last made about 80% of the Japanese fandom super pissed off and they bailed on the series.
I don't think you can. You've been a member since the 5th of this month. Even if you've lurked for a year or two, I've been here since 2012. I was there when the ending happened, the Last happened. Everyone here was watching very closely to the series and how the fandom was reacting in Japan. Heck, we used to have a Japanese member here that could confirm things first hand. Everyone here hated the ending and those that remain still do.
You obviously were not here when light was shed on why the ending happened the way it did. The corruption and manipulation via Kishimoto's editors and Studio Perriot. That or you're ignoring it.
Your 'truth' is extremely flawed and from what I've seen in several thread, very unwelcome here. There's nothing I can do to stop you, but you've been irritating a lot of members with your false truths. Good grief, I've seen you blatantly deny a canon fact. Something that was clearly expressed in a manga panel because it conflicted with what you call, 'the truth'. You've denied the fact that Sakura has been the heroine of the entire manga from beginning to end. The truth is in the manga, the pages, the roles played by Sakura and the story itself. She is the heroine. Yet you're saying she's not because Kishimoto painfully and obviously lied, saying Hinata was AFTER the manga had long ended when the damage was done. No one except delusional Hinata fans have accepted that BS.
A girl that appears less that 1% of the entire manga series (yes, people have calculated this) cannot be and is not the heroine. Especially when Sakura, the true heroine, shows up at least 90% of the entire manga and fits that role perfectly. FFS, how anyone can claim that a girl that appears less than 1% in the entire story and is almost killed in every battle she's been in that focuses on her is the heroine needs some serious help and a long class on storytelling.
You're coming off to me as a crafty troll. It hardly matters if you're not, either way I think you're wasting your time here.
You wandered into a thread where people who didn't believe in NaruSaku still having a chance were not welcome and started spouting off your, once again, quite false 'truths'. Which was extremely rude. If your goal is discussion and debate, please stick with the debate thread and the debate thread alone.
However, I'm not going to debate with you here anymore. Thinking on it all while writing this, you're all too eager to ignore the facts and debating with you is like pulling on a push door. Silly, pointless and neither will be going anywhere.
Edited by Moon_Girl, 25 July 2017 - 03:02 AM.