Ed and Al were not ostracized an in their hometown and there was no "cool sexy bad boy rival" for Winry to drool over at first. I assume at least.
Besides overall from what I gather FMA is not as polarizing as Naruto on a fundamental level and the characters are nowhere near as debated. if anything there is just flame wars on which FMA is "better".
My problem is the double standard of it rather than there being more reasons for Naruto to sympathize with Obito than just a desire of being hokage.
Naruto ultimately sympathized with Nagato for wanting to achieve peace but was betrayed by the very person he was seeking an alliance with and had a sadistic choice to make regarding his best friend which said best friend made for him by committing suicide. Gaara was hated and unloved by his entire village, and unlike Naruto, had multiple assassination attempts on him.
Naruto ultimately sympathized with both of them, both of them yet did not call either of them "coolest guy" just because they are similar. And in fact Obito had it easy compared to all three of them, he had a family and a normal childhood but ultimately decided life was worthless because he witnessed the love of his life killed by his (last second) best friend which is completely disproportionate to the actions he responded with yet he is one Naruto calls a "cool guy".
Naruto understood Nagato and Gaara when he heard about their back stories but he could not forgive Nagato even then, and threatened Gaara that he will kill him if the former tries to take away those he loves even if he acknowledges Gaara had the harder life. Even if it represents Naruto's character development supposedly the execution of it was just terrible since Naruto said that while the same panel displays a full landscape of corpses in the middle of the war. That completely contradicts the meaning of the message if you ask me.
Also again, If Naruto was willing to be all loving and all forgiving to the one that ruined his life and created the very first war he experienced just because he was whiny and petty enough to justify the world is rotten and should be molded in the image he wanted just because he never got to kiss his "unrequited love" (because that is all it boils down to in the end), then Naruto has a poor showing of trying to change anything again now didn't he. Sure we are too caught up on Naruto calling Obito the "coolest guy", but honestly the actions he took and the reasoning for it are hardly justified compared to the above examples isn't it. Oh and Obito as Tobi told Naruto about the the truth of the Uchiha massacre. You don't see Naruto calling Itachi the "coolest guy" either.
I am pretty sure it was stated somewhere in the manga that Obito was an orphan and an outcast in his clan due to his lack of talent.
Anyways. I mentioned dark reflections on another topic. To keep it short and simple. Stories like having characters who represent an aspect of a main character that could have turned them evil. If the final boss is a dark reflection then, they represent the ultimate issue that could turn the character evil.
Nagato, Gaara, and Obito were all dark reflections of Naruto. Gaara was what if Iruka didn't make his speech in chapter one and he gave into hating the village. Nagato is what if Sasuke died and what if he abandoned Jiraiya's teachings. Obito was Naruto's ultimate dark reflection; he was what if Sakura died. Which means as his ultimate dark reflection, the thing that would most likely break Naruto and turn him evil is the death of Sakura. Why? because, he loves her. The story and more importantly, his forgiveness of Obito, doesn't make since if he doesn't love her.
Naruto realizing this is why he forgave Obito. Because, they were so alike, he must have had the same feeling for Rin as he does for Sakura. That is why chapter 652 is so important because that was the moment he had a shift in his understanding of Obito and eventually moved to forgive him. He forgave the man who ruined his life because he lost someone he loved as much as Naruto does Sakura.
The forgiving of Obito turns NS into a foundational part of the story, if it wasn't already, as the story does not work if Naruto doesn't love her. Which is one of the reason it collapsed with the ending. The things you are complaining about the story lacking are there, mind you poorly handled or expressed. Your obsession with the "coolest guy" bit prevents you from seeing what Obito is; another reason the ending doesn't work. As again, it could only possibly work if NS happened. Now, it just another aspect of the story that disconnects the reader from the story.
Edited by Bail o' Lies, 03 July 2023 - 05:00 AM.
