Naruto 324

[RasenDori]

i agree that kishis been playing it safe lately. and although sais change was predictiable it was nessecary. team 7 needed a new member as dedicated to their cause as they are. i was ok with gaaras revival because i felt it was nessesary. but still dont think that deaths will automatically make the akatsuki more badass or make the story any better.

[mage]

Killing Chouji at that point would have made Shikamaru quitting being a ninja, and he would have gone a crazy, lonely man.

Shikamaru is not a real person. He is whoever Kishomoto makes him. It would be very easy to create a scenario where he comes back from Chouji's death and becomes a better and wiser person because of it.

. .

[p0ltergeist]

The annoying thing was that the death scenes for Chouji and Neji were very well done... except that they didn't die. It's as if Kishi suddenly changed his mind just as he was writing the end of part 1.

[samsonlonghair]

If Chouji had died, it could have made Shikamaru a better character in any number of ways. With some good writing, Kishimoto could have spun Shikamaru's reaction to Chouji's death into several great storylines.

[Munsu]

Kishimoto could've also made it all about Naruto once Chouji died. Naruto would start to question if getting Sasuke back is worth the life of his friends and shit, I think that would've made some interesting storylines.

[RasenDori]

which would not work with the theme at all

[samsonlonghair]

The theme of Naruto is a loser who finally gets to win. Making Shikamaru a loser would fit into that theme perfectly.

[ody]

Killing Chouji at that point would have made Shikamaru quitting being a ninja, and he would have gone a crazy, lonely man.

Shows what you know about Naruto... Which is absolutely nothing.

[RasenDori]

the most central point of the story right now is about 2 people trying desperately to save their friend. what im saying is that naruto having doubts about if sasuke is worth the effort would moot that point.

[Terracosmo]

Fuck Naruto and fuck points, Chouji should have died period. The "fake deaths" of those characters during the chase arc is still the most disappointing aspect of this series, and also the part of it that ultimately showed that it isn't the somewhat unforgiving series we thought it would be during the early parts of it (which actually had quite a few deaths).