Sorry to bug you again but could I pick your brain again. In the discussion they say Kishimoto sold out because he disregarded the bond between Naruto and Sakura and the Last destroyed the bond between them. Also that Kishimoto's announcement for the new Boruto movie and miniseries is him also selling out for more profit and disregarding the fans. Another point that they raise was that Sasuke was not punished enough and how after all he did to her how Sasuke and Sakura could fall in love.
Alright, sorry for the wait, and you’re not bugging at all. I enjoy stuff like this immensely; you’re really helping me here. Now, moving on.
Now, lets address point one: Kishimoto sold out because he somehow ‘disregarded’ the bond between Naruto and Sakura, and then the Last somehow destroyed that bond. First off, which bond are we talking about? If they mean a bond of romance, than no bond was disregarded, it simply did not exist. Further, the Last does not break any bonds, certainly not the one that DOES exist between Naruto and Sakura, one of friendship and respect. Instead, we see it very strong indeed, with Sakura attempting to help Naruto finally realize how he feels about Hinata, and how she feels about him. We also see him helping her when she is in in need, just as she nearly dies trying to help him. Far from breaking the bond, it shows it very strong.
However, if this bond is one of romance, than the simple answer is ‘such a bond did not exist.’ Simply put, even if we wanted to somehow ignore the fact that Naruto’s crush for Sakura had faded over the course of Part 1, to say nothing of Part 2, Sakura never returned those feelings. When your entire evidence relies on unreliable third party sources, and can easily be interpreted another way, its hard to really make a case.
Given we now know, because of what is canon and what Kishimoto has wrote and said (in things like interviews, where he confirmed the end pairings were planned long ago, and also other people who worked on the series confirmed the ending was the same one Kishimoto described to them literally over half a decade ago, as well as in things like Retsu no Sho) and what has been shown in the Last about what the conclusive meaning of some scenes was, rather than just likely interpretations, those arguments hold even less water.
In short: Naruto and Sakura’s bond is only strengthened in the Last, with Naruto thanking Sakura for helping him realize his feelings for Hinata, and so on. They’re friends, teammates, and will be so for life.
Moving on to the claim that the Boruto movie and miniseries means selling out. I’m unsure, but does ‘selling out’ mean ‘using ones intellectual property to make money?’ Because, at the end, why is this a bad thing? He wants to continue writing in the universe, he wants to show a story of what happens after. Why is this bad? Most fans of series would clamor for this sort of thing, but it seems that in this case, its ‘selling out.’ I don’t understand.
Actually I do. I suspect that if the miniseries was about a child of Naruto and Sakura, their opinions would be very much reversed. Regardless, using ones creative assets its not ‘selling out.’
Plus, this does not even make sense. How can one sell out for profit, yet disregard fans? There is no profit unless fans buy it. These two things are literally mutually exclusive. Given the runaway success of the Last (despite claims to the contrary, and arguments about ‘misleading’ with Sasuke or Kakashi fans generally are about as reliable as that fake interview about how Kishimoto really loved Karin and wanted to make SK canon but ‘wasn’t allowed to,’) fans clearly are still embracing things. Claims that merchandise isn’t selling is equally false, they sold fantastically. The novelization of the Last sold fantastically. The last volume of Naruto sold fantastically.
Fans are not nearly as upset with Kishimoto as they think, I suspect. We shippers make up a fraction, of a fraction of the fandom. The majority are not shippers, so of the minority that are shippers, a smaller minority are shippers of particular ships (such as the ones that are not canon now,) and then a smaller fraction yet are members of what we might call the ‘anti-ending’ crowd. Also, given the explosion of fan art and material involving the next-generation characters, the fans are clearly embracing them already.
So no, that still doesn’t really explain how Kishimoto ‘sold out.’
On to the last two points. Sasuke wasn’t punished enough. I have two angles for this that need to be addressed. The first is that at the end of the day, Sasuke was key in literally saving the world, and then was even more key in ending the Infinite Tsukuyomi. While these may not invalidate his very real and very terrible actions (including some often ignore, like the fact that his attack on B was indeed directly a contributor to the Ten-Tails being revived in the first place,) at the end of the day his actions in helping save the world, and the fact that both the hokage (another hero of the war) and THE hero of the war both vouched and pulled for him meant he did get off for things.
The irony here is the other side of the anti-fandom thinks the idea he needed redemption at all is silly, which is why I’m curious how anyone could consider the two big non-canon ships as ‘allies.’
However, this flows into a second thing: who the hell was going to punish him? Sasuke is literally the second most powerful person in the world. Post-698, with the bijuu being freed, and thus the yin and yang halves of Kurama being joined, he’s actually possibly a step behind Naruto, given he would no longer have the bijuu to draw on. Then again, he’d be mastering his rinnegan more. Only Naruto can match him.
You really think Naruto is going to imprison him? He never would. That said, he IS taking responsibility for Sasuke, and Sasuke knows it.
Moving on, Sakura doesn’t have to fall in love with Sasuke, she already does. You can try to list off all the things she’s done, but he’s done even more to Naruto. Love does not need a reason, and given the universe we’re in, where they’re all literally super-powered child mercenaries, what HAS happened is hardly out of place.
Sakura already loves him. She has for a majority of the series. Sasuke reciprocates. That’s the end of it.
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