Quote Originally Posted by DayoftheDante
Didn't like this.

It diminishes the sense of accomplishment Sasuke would have gotten from killing Itachi outright, and he had no other objective. I would feel like total shit. I would have been happier if Sasuke had killed Itachi but then died of his wounds shortly after.

When Itachi was first introduced and we learned what he'd done, we didn't understand his motives. Now, here at what appears to be the end, we don't understand his motives. We might never get closure on this, but a dumber outcome would be the discovery of some kind of suicide note written by Itachi. Even worse would be a monologue from Sasuke about "Now I understand." I think a letter to Sasuke would suuuuuuck and would be totally out of character for Itachi.
I agree Sasuke certainly can't have any sense of vindication after this victory much like his victories against Deidara and Oro.

Yeah the tap on the forehead was a nice tie in and everything but this battle has just been endlessly disappointing. After Sasuke defeated the other MS techniques Itachi pulls out his trump card and with victory in hand he just keels over, I mean of all the ways I thought Kishi would come up with for Sasuke to walk away from this battle I didn't think he would simply just make Itachi fall on his back. This explanation better be serious because for such an epic battle that has been setup since the beginning of the series this is an utter disappointment.