Since so much of my time in the Naruto episode discussions is wasted arguing about whether or not there should be flashbacks, I have decided to start a thread.

In my opinion, the flashbacks are great. They provide information about character history so it isn't just pointless killing (if it were, it would be boring after 3 or 4 episodes). We are coming into Naruto's life pretty late, so the flashbacks are useful. They also help to show similarities between characters, lets us know why they act the way they do, and guides our feelings about the characters. I used to think that Gaara was just an extremely powerful "person" with a short temper (like Naruto) and killed for that reason alone. After all of the flashbacks, I see that he had a terrible childhood in which nobody at all loved him and he saw that he could trust no one. This made me sort of feel sorry for him, although I still want Naruto to kick his ass.

Thanks for posting here instead of in the discussion for the latest episode.