[UPDATED] : 22.01.2017
[Sasuke Uchiha: Kishimotos worst Characterwriting related to the Story]
To review the Character of Sasuke i will begin at the point where he starts to fall off as a 'good'-Character (however he still somehow improved in the eyes of many fans). We will come to that later.
A good Character within a story is summed up to:
-25% Character-Design (likeable or not)
-25% Characterwriting (purpose of the Character - how Kishimoto is working with the Character)
-25% Character-Development (utilizing the 'experience' a Character is going through within the story)
-25% Character-Potential (used opportunites to develop the Character)
[Everything will be 'my' Opinion and my point-of-view how i rate a Character]
I will not focus on the Character-Design of Sasuke. The Character-design isn't just the appearance of the Character. It's also his personality, attitude and also includes his past which affects his personality. I will mainly focus on his Plot-usage and how Kishi includes him in his Story. So i will mainly focusing myself on the 'Characterwriting' and his 'Character-Development'. However i will still rate his Design and his used Potential at the end in my 'Conclusion'.
The point where he falls off is when Kishimoto changed his Role from a 'Rival' to a 'Villain'. You could argue that he was already a 'Villain' by joining Orochimaru, but he didn't made a move against Konoha or Naruto -> so he didn't play the antagonist there. The clear start of his 'Villain'-role begun by joining Akatsuki (after talking with Obito about Itachis truth). Since the 'Conversation about Itachis truth' was an important changing-point for the Character i would like to recall this Part, because it clearly shows why Sasuke is a bad-written Character.
Being a antagonist doesn't automatically turns you into a villain. Sasuke had good convictions to be a avenger, but this was dropped with the attemp to hunt Killer-Bee and also the attempt to kill the kages for his own ideologie of peace - that has less to do with his 'revenge' and just puts him in the same category as Madara and Tobi (both tried to force their own idea of peace, and they kill other people to acchieve that goal). Having good convictions doesn't make your 'bad'-actions good, and also doesn't make you a exception for being a accomplice of the main-villain
So here we go:
So here we have a stranger, and on top of that a masked guy from Akatsuki who wants to tell something important to Sasuke. He is pretty suspicious but we will give him a chance and see what he is trying to say
The jutsu was activated to kill 'Tobi' but failed, and 'Tobi' himself tells him that Itachi tried to protect Sasuke from him. Lets just keep that in mind for later!
So first: the stranger, the masked guy claims to be 'Madara' who should be already dead years ago, but thats of course not suspicious and Sasuke will not ask for some proofs -> maybe asking something like "Why is your mask needed if you revealed your true identy already?". But thats just the first piece of following parts where Sasuke just ignores the suspicous things. Dont worry, we will go through all of them.
Second: he also said that he 'helped' Itachi during that 'night' and killed off his entire Clan. Again Sasuke is not questioning this 'BIG' Information he just got. 'Why did he helped him?' 'If he is an Uchiha too, then why did he kill his own Clan?' because thats clearly not important for Sasuke
Here we go again: 'Itachi tried to protect Sasuke from 'Tobi' ' keep that in mind!
Sasuke refused to listen to Itachi, and straight up attacked him with the attempt to kill him, because Itachi killed his Clan. However he will listen to the stranger who is already suspicious and also already claimed that he helped itachi by killing his own clan. So this was already a big '?' for me when i read this first.
'Tobi' now tells Sasuke everything about his past, and also the part whe he took the eyes from his Brother to achieve the 'eternal mangekyou sharingan'. You know whats funny about this? 'This' little Information Sasuke is really curious about, but the other BIG Informations tobi already have told were just completly ignored by him. Because THIS is really important... The conversion should be about Itachis truth but Sasuke is curious about his Eyepower. And even here Sasuke is not asking for some evidence "Show me your EMS if u claim to posses it" because Sasuke was already trusting this guy and doesn't need any kind of evidence for his story.
At this point i started to 'cringe' about this whole conversation. Kishimoto really tried to give Sasuke the 'i will not fall for that lie'-role so he won't be displayed as a naiv manipulative character. But forcing him to ignore the most suspicious things, and even force him to ask the wrong and unneeded questions (because kishimoto tried to create a realistic conversation where 'tobi' would sell his story in a good way so he can convince Sasuke) just makes this Character 'stupid'. Not even Kiba would fall for that. Tobi already revealed that he was part of the massacre and Sasuke is stil listenting to him and swallows everything... but ye whatever, we are not done yet.
Now 'Tobi' (aka fake Madara) tells him that he abandoned the Village (and also his own clan). After that he returned to the Village with the 9-tails to get his own revenge but lost against the 1st Hokage. Then he played the 'dead'-one and faded away from the history.
Now he claims that the attack of the 9-tails was just a 'natural disaster'. again... How does he know that? was he there to watch the whole event? wouldn't it be super suspicious if he was there by 'chance' at the time the 9-tails attacked? I mean he already revealed his 'hate' towards his own Clan and the Village, so he would have a big motive to attack the village 'again' with the 9-tails after the death of the 1st Hokage. Is Sasuke questioning all of these things? of course not.
Really.. such a 'Natural Disaster' the 9-tails-attack was which leads the Elders from Konoha to assign Itachi the task to kill his own clan.. and 'Tobi' was just there - coincidentally - so he can be part of that task too for his own revenge against his own clan.
Congratulation. Finally Kishimoto gave Sasuke a 'brain'. Sadly this little Hope got destroyed by 'tobi' with: "i'm afraid thats a lie, sasuke" and we are now back again by believing him everything. Clever writing: just say "im sorry, thats a lie" and he believes you. thats also how the whole conversation went (i didn't show the whole conversation.. buts you can imagine how the other stuff went -> Sasuke :"thats all a lie" and tobi responses to that: "no, its true.. believe it".
And what happened next? Sasuke cried and made his decision "i will destroy Konoha"
So 'Tobi' made sure that Sasuke belives his 'story' and swallows everything, also the part that Itachi really did everything FOR him. Itachi created a 'master-plan' just for Sasuke.. but we ignore the last part of his master-plan. The part where he tried to protect Sasuke from Madara is just being ignored.
"Thanks 'Madara' for telling me itachis truth, you really opened my eyes.. i really believe now that itachi did everything to protect me.. but the last part where he tried to kill u, that wasn't nice of him.. he shouldn't have done that, you are acutally such a nice guy"
I mean Itachi was already afraid that Sasuke will be manipulated by Orochimaru and he was damn right with his assumption, but now his assumption that 'Madara' might manipulate Sasuke for his own goal is... whatever.
Also the part where he claimed that he helped itachi killing his own clan is just being ignored. I mean he killed Itachi because Itachi killed his own Clan, but he will not kill 'Tobi' for the same reason.. no INSTEAD he helps him with his Moon-Plan and tried to capture Killer-Bee which which he won't even benefit from and distracted himself from his own goals. They don't even share the same goal, so why ?
Even Itachi noticed it, "kill him?" ye you sure will kill him
After all that i was just "WOW". I don't know what to think about this Caracter anymore. The Story behind Itachi was interesting but the way how Kishimoto handled 'this' Conversation was cringe worthy.
Finally done with this Part!
Lets go back to Season 1 of Naruto where Sasuke was acutally a good Character
Kishimoto created Team-7 as a feudion Trio (used in many other shows)
One Character is driven by logic and instinct (Naruto)
One Character is driven by emotions and reasons (Sasuke)
One Character is balancing the other 2 out (Sakura)
The benefit of a feudion-Trio is that you don't have the need of a complex Character because they balance each other out (Naruto is stubborn and never uses his brain, but Sakura will be the brain in the team) . Creating a complex Character is always one of the most difficult task writing within a Story since it create many rooms for mistakes (but its also rewarded the most if its done right). A complex personality is always needed for a stand-alone Character within a complex Story. We will come to that topic later.
Sasuke was driven by his emotions of hate towards Itachi, while Naruto was trying to keep him in place with team-7 because by logic of being a teammate/friend.
Sasuke not only played a great 'Rival' but also a great 'Counterpart' to Naruto with an interesting build-up. The Characterdesign of Sasuke was really great, and also well displayed in Season 1. Kishimoto utilized his past perfectly for the Character to be a important drive within the story (without being a mainly focus to the story)
On the one side we have Sasuke: a skilled and talented Ninja from a strong Clan.
On the other side we have Naruto: the dead-last from Zero.
Both Character choosed a different way related to their past. Naruto took the 'hard-work'-way with effort and a lot of practice, while Sasuke took the 'power-seek'-way with more eyepower, curse-seals, drugs etc.
And Sasuke played his role really well, better than Naruto did with his role (Lee is the best example of 'hard-work')
Everyone would assume that the story will end with Hard-Work > Power-Seek. I was really sure of myself after Season 1 that Naruto will beat Sasuke because he will suffer horrible side-effects from his addiction for more Power.
Naruto and Sasuke are pretty much a 'Light / Dark - Characterconstellation - concept' where the Light will overcome the Dark.
So basically Kishimoto had 2 options for a good Storybuild-up regarding Naruto and Sasuke. Either he will let them fight eachother at the end where Naruto wins because of the Hard-Work > Power-Seek concept OR he will re-unite team 7 after Sasuke killed orochimaru (or even after killing Itachi) and let him return to konoha..
however Kishimoto took the 3rd Option: (Shippuden-Style).
Kishimoto made many mistakes with Shippuden and Sasuke was also a big part of it.
Shippuden-stlye is basically just the focus on the 'Naruto vs Sasuke'-fight towards the end. The fight in season 1 was already a huge success for the manga, and a overwhelmed Kishimoto decided to create another Naruoto vs Sasuke fight in Shippuden, but this time with a overstreched tension build-up. Kishimot basically put all his focus on Naruto and Sasuke to hype-up the fight between them while he is pretty lazy with the other stuff around them (the other characters / story-plot outside of Naruto and Sasuke etc.).
Sasuke was now a stand-alone Character becaue Kishimoto decided to give him almost the same amount of screentime as Naruto, but this time he isn't within a Trio.. so Kishimoto needs to develop Sasuke into an complex Character to let him shine through out the complex Story. But i guess Kishi was also too lazy for that? or maybe he did in on purpose ? who knows.
Because Kishi kept Sasuke as a Character only driven by emotions and reasons, he lacks the logic and mature decision-making for his following actions, because Sasuke did many things which were pretty much complete non-sense.
Before some of you start to argue about that Sasuke isn't only driven by emotions, let me explain it. I don't talk about situational emotions, because Sasuke doesn't show them much. He rarely shows affection, fear, kidness, hapiness etc. and always have a logical-clear mindest in certain situations (in battles for examples). But thats not what i mean. I talk about the long-term emotions (Hate, love, revenge, disappointment etc,) which a mangaka can use to drive his Character. The 2nd Hokage also mentioned in his conversation with Sasuke that the 'uchihas' are known for their emotionall-drive (thats why obitos hate over a crush caused a whole war) - but this 'reason' was only created to justify some of the exeggerated unlogic convictions. At crucial points where Sasuke is about to develop, his matue decission-making and his logic gets suppressed by kishimoto to let him be driven by his emotions only
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lets count them:
1. - after killing Orochimaru, it would be the logical and smart move to return to Konoha. Naruto and the others wanted him back, so he had the option to return.. also as being the killer of the 3rd-Hokage-murderer he would be a little Hero for Konoha. Konoha would support him re-builing his clan if the time arrives for that, and Naruto (+ the other sinhobis) would support him hunting down Akatsuki -> which also means hunting down Itachi. so he would only benefit from this move.. but kishi doesn't want that to happen. Letting him return would mean that team-7 gets re-united, but it destroys the 'NaruSasu-Fight' build-up. So instead Sasuke gets his own Team 'Team Hebi' to create a parralel to Narutos-Team. "Team-7 vs Team-Hebi" -> thats how Kishi tries to hype-up his glorious upcoming fight more and more.
You could also argue that Sasukes new Team 'Hebi' is a new source for him where his Characterdesing can be balanced out for the story, but thats not the case. They are only a source where Sasuke can show his soft-side and that he 'can' care about others. Besides that they have litteraly 0 influence on him and his following actions (they just follow him on his way) -> Team-7 had much more influence on him back in Season 1.
2. - the conversation between him and tobi about itachis-truth was already mentioned above. It shows how Kishimoto is 'developing' his Character by only shifting his emotions for a different ambition to create a new drive in the Story, but he never really grow up from his one-dimensional Characterdesign (which was okey in Season 1, but not as a stand-alone Character in Shippuden). It also shows how Kishi 'create' the 'reasons' for Sasukes to justify his upcoming actions -> he creates them! (we will come to that later)
3. - Sasukes first crime. Joining Akatsuki was already completly nonsense, since they don't aim for the same goal. However they shared a same mission of 'attacking konoha', because Akatsuki still needed the 9-tails, but i don't understand why Sasuke would distract himself with Killer-Bee instead of focusing on the 'same' mission attacking konoha. After capturing Killer-Bee (which turns out to be just a shadow-clone) he immediately left Akatsuki and focused on his own goal destroying Konoha again... so joining Akatsuki was basically just a waste of time and he got nothing out of it because the benefit of capturing the 8-tails has nothing to do with his goal.. really clever decision. and because of that 'clever decision' he was now being targeted by all the villages for attacking killer-bee. Kishimoto must be really proud of himself, forcing Sasuke to do something completly unnecessary just to start his villain-role. "Dont worry guys, it will be worth it.. it will increase the tension for the last NaruSaSu-fight" - Kishimoto
You know how Kishi created this 'clever decision' ?
- Step 1: give Sasuke a reason to join Akatsuki [Tobi: you will get more power from me in return for your help me]
- Step 2: let Sasuke be a villain [Unauthorized entry to a Village + attacking Killer Bee]
- Step 3: revert the reason and let him leave Akatsuki [Sasuke: I dont need the promised Power from you]
Its basically Tobi saying: "Yo sasuke, throw that stone on the head of this guy (you don't even know him) but the cops will come for you" (the kage are coming - because of YOU)
and Sasuke: "no problem, i mean i will also benefit from that, right ? -> *attack the guy* -> "you know what? actually i don't want that anymore.. i have other stuff to do, bye" -> *cops are still coming*
Missed Opportunity here: Tobi: "you need to attack killer bee (because he is a easier target than naruto) to create the needed drama for a Kage-summit. This will be the time where 'Danzo' will come out of his safety-place-Konoha to take part of the summit -> where you can kill him with the lack of his own safety"
Would be pretty smart and clever right? and you don't have to turn Sasuke into a stupid manipulativ Character for that.
4. - Sasuke vs Danzo. This fight was actually reasonable for Sasuke, because Danzo was the one who assigned Itachi with the task to kill the Uchihas. However this is a good example of how Kishimoto sacrifies other Characters just to feed up Sasuke and Naruto. Danzo was foreshadowed by Jiraya and many were waiting for him to appear (danzo was hyped up). Then Danzo finally appears and dies immediately in the first event against Sasuke. thats how u waste good/interesting charcter-potential.
So you can't really count that as a stupid decision because Sasuke had good reasons to kill Danzo (despite he should kill Tobi for the same reason, and not HELP him)
5. - Sasuke then decided to be the next hokage. "wow look guys, now we have Naruto AND Sasuke attending for the Hokage-title.. are u already hyped up for the NaruSasu fight?" - Kishimoto.
There is litteralry nothing to talk about this move.. it just summs up Sasukes Character-development = utter nonsense. Again, Kishi just created out of nowhere a reason for Sasuke to 'act' like that. [Also to create a Team-7 re-united - Arc for the Fans before we can go back again to our NaruSasu-Build-up]
6. - After Sasuke basically absued the Shinobi-Alliance to get rid of the 'Main-villains' (Kaguya, Obito, Madara) he then decided to kill the 5 Kages so he can create his own kind of 'Peace'. Danzos way of leading was to kill the people who would harm the peace (the Uchiha-Clan). Now Sasuke is basically following his footsteps and he wants to kill the Kage to create his own peace ? This Character really surprise me all the time... But thats only BECAUSE WE CAN NOW HAVE THE FIGHT BETWEEN NARUTO VS SASUKE!!! HYPE!!!.. yee.. wow.. honestly? thats so lame. thats such a big of a joke. The fight was great, i do enjoyed it (i still perfered the fight from season 1) but how kishi was building up to that... such a terrible work! and he sacrifiied his own story, so much potential and so many characters for such a terrible build-up... just for one single fight. that wasn't worth it at all.. not in the slightest.
- also the whole "Reincarnation"-Stuff was only created by Kishimoto to give the NaruSasu-Fight a profound Story meaning. It wouldn't be good if Kishi had used all his Focus on the fight because of Naruto who
couldn't get over his obsession towards him.. so he created something 'more important' to not make it silly. The
whole War-Arc could have been done without the "Reincarnation"-concept just with Madara as the last-villain.
7. - What was the outcome of the Fight ? Sasuke now turned into a little version of Naruto... using logic but suppressing his emotions. This was already hurting Naruto as a Character (Be nice all the time, even towards your enemy.. talk to him and give him a chance and never forget.. ... don't kill your enemies!! even if he killed your parents) - fairytail-logic what kishi created here. Naruto is the first Hokage without killing someone, what a great reputation which shippuden-fans can be really proud of. (But he killed atleast hundred of White Zetsus!!!)
What can Sasuke even regret about his Actions ?
- only nearly kiled Naruto
- only nearly killed Sakura
- he killed Orochimaru (he was revived)
- he killed Danzo (no one cares appearently ? - everyone wanted him dead anyways)
- he killed Itachi (Itachi was dying anyways from his sick-pain, and he manipulate Sasuke to kill him)
- he attacked Killer-bee (but just captured a shadow-clone)
so there is nothing to feel 'guilty' at the end, because Kishimoto refused to give Sasuke 'real' consequences for his actions. (maybe let Neji die at the Sasuke-rescue-Arc from Part 1) / (maybe let Kakashi die when he fought against Sasuke) / (maybe let Naruto die at the end) etc.
He just can be lucky that everything went well at the end. So how can he start to 'regret' his actions if he didn't really lose anything, or didn't cause a loss for someone else? You regret the most after a loss, and you change from your own 'hate' the most if the regrets are heavier than your hateful drive. But ye, Sasuke is just a fictional Character so he changed successfully into a good person by lettimg him do whatever he wants without letting him taking any responsibilities.
Done with the counting!!
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thats why Kishimoto didn't develop Sasuke to a complex Character, so he can abuse his lack of logic and immature decision-making to build-up the last Fight. All he had to do was to 'create' some kind of stupid-easy reasons for Sasuke to let him act the way Kishimoto wants him to act. Not only abused by the Villains (Itachi, Orochimaru, Tobi) but also abused by his own creater Kishimoto. Its kinda the same with Naruto. Kishimoto created the unhealthy obsession towards Sasuke so Naruto will never give up on him -> to keep the NaruSasu-Fight alive. But he didn't change Naruto as much as with Sasuke. Sasuke was the Character Kishimoto could use to set up the main-drive of the Story, thats why he played alot with this 'Character development' to be the main-tool for his build-up.
It wasn't a mistake to turn Sasuke into a Villain for a more 'interesting' Build-up. If he wants Sasuke to be a criminal then he can do that, but 'how' he wrote Sasuke into that was just devastating
Quote from above: " Creating a complex Character is always one of the most difficult task writing within a Story since it create many rooms for mistakes (but its also rewarded the most if its done right) " - Kishimoto really hit many mistakes because he gave Sasuke the most room of 'development' from all the Characters -> but in this case it was only more room for mistakes
There are plenty other Characters with terrible writing (Obito, Kaguya, Tsunade), but they don't carry the same weight as Sasuke. He did more damage to the story than other Characters - thats why he is the worst of them because he was the major reason why this storytellin/build-up damaged the whole plot
[Conclusion]
[Character-Design]
- He is a 'badass'-Character with his overall appearence. He is the stereotype calm/cold/loner-fighter which never stops to amaze the audience. His look pretty much fits him, and his large Jutsu-arsenal is just screaming 'raw-power'. His fast and sharp fightingstyle is also something to be considered. His past which mainly affects his personality gives the needed touch and connection to the audience (to feel with the character). Overall i think his Design is well done by Kishimoto and really suits in the Naruto-genre [most fans are rating Characer-design > everything else]. His Character-design got hurt the most with the limitation towards his emotions and reasons, but it just results to damaging his Characterwriting instead of his Design
[Characterwriting]
- Sasuke is a plotdrive-Character and 60% of the events are resolving around his actions. ('He' was one of the reasons for Orochimarus Attack on Konoha / the timeskip started after he has abandon the village / the kage-summit was planned after 'he' did his first crime / the show ends with the end of his hate etc...). He was a good plotdrive-Character in Part 1 because it didn't feel forced, the focus on him was balanced and not over the top to give room for other Characters to develop and room for the other Storyevents. The Build-up in Part 1 wasn't mainly around him. Kishimoto took off the 'balance' in Shippuden and gave Sasuke more and more room to play with. He creates stupid/unneded reasons to drive the Character for his own build-up to create more and more hype for the fight. It feels forced and just sacrifies his own Story more and more for a single Character/fight. His poor writing in Shippuden is noticebale and was the main reason why he destroyed this character.
[Characterdevelopment]
- his growing relationship to his own team while his drive to seek more power was also growing is just really well developed by Kishimoto. Sadly he crushed his development in Shippuden and just toyed around with this 'hate' to create forced upcoming events (and you can't count that as development) - before he went 180° with the Character at the end and turned him into a calm/loner-version of Naruto.
[Characterpotential]
- there isn't much to talk about the used Potential. The only potential which mattered the most for a Battle-Build-up was to give him more and more Power - and Kishimoto is the Santa-claus of free-power-ups in Shippuden
(25 % Characterdesign)
[6/10) - Part 1 / [8/10] - Shippuden
(25 % Characterwriting)
[7/10] - Part 1 / [2/10] - Shippuden
(25 % Character-development)
[6/10] - Part 1 / [3/10] - Shippuden
(25 % Characterpotential-used)
[5/10] - Part 1 / [7/10] - Shippuden
Thx for reading
[I might still update this 'review' in the future]
Edited by Riverkid, 22 January 2017 - 07:23 AM.