[itachi-san314]

Originally Posted by akumaten

I would say Sakura was ruined, but she already terrible.

yea, this certainly wasn't the first or defining moment of her awfulness. her character was always pretty awful

After saying that he didn't want to see his comrades falling before him in the Sand war arc, that was ruined for Sasuke falling into vengeance

i disagree here. sasuke's character developed from the scene you're talking about. after proving useless against itachi, seeing naruto's rasengan do more damage than his chidori and getting stomped by the sound 4, sasuke came to the pretty logical conclusion that he wasn't advancing fast enough in the leaf village to reach his goal of beating itachi

Naruto get ruined for trying to get Sasuke back instead on improving his own standing of trying to be a Hokage and relying on the Kyubi

that's sasuke's argument when they meet post timeskip. i can see it both ways since naruto's counter was that someone who can't save their best friend shouldn't be able to be hokage in the first place

It wasn't even a rescue. Sasuke wanted to leave to be with a literal snake in the grass, Orochmaru. The guy who almost killed him with that seal and got the 3rd Hokage killed.

it was a failed rescue which i actually love. i find it boring when the heroes always win and get their way. i always expected and wanted naruto to win in the end, but i would have actually liked to see him fail more along the way like he did in this arc. and again, it was sasuke's character arc that he gave up caring about the leaf. itachi basically broke his brain with tsukiyomi and turned him almost entirely evil

The only thing I liked about it was Shikamaru proving that he is an effective Chunin and leader.

i liked shikamaru's role a lot as well. it was very well written how each member had to make certain sacrifices. another thing i disliked though (especially in retrospect) was neji and chouji being brought back. their deaths would have been epic and memorable as opposed to their uselessness in part 2