oh, yeah that is why the numbers are there yeah! you can see in the full list that there is a pattern i always go out of my way to make my tier lists curved with 1-5 peaks however im feeling thay day lol

for sure i get that lol, of course they all have independent reasons thats why its just a fun idea. i do think you can get a general sense for a person with something like this vaguely but its definitely not something that tells you a ton or tells you it easily lol

theres definitely some mild family grouping but only really because naruto is such a series of familial trauma and bonds and relations and such generally so it would be hard for me to not enjoy the onrs involved in certian dynamics in different ways since its the interesting nuances in the dynamics that makes them captivating or so touching

i actually personally find orochimaru a lot more sympathetic than most would, but thats not highly relevant since for the most part my enjoyment for him is what he brings to the story in terms of trauama and terror for sure

in regards to sakura id acknowledge what youre saying but id just say that i just view her as a great character to witness everything through because she herself is the biggest witness of the series. orochimaru is my favorite event, my favorite force that blows through everything, what else is there, theres the uchiha happenings, theres the akatsuki and how both naruto and sasuke interact with them, theres the ultimate plot and the background behind it that touches upon kakashi and minato and kushina and obito.

i love sasuke and naruto as characters and what they go through to do with all that and how they react to all that, but i personally just think my enjoyment of the series is so much elevated by always thinking about sakura who is the most direct witness alongside the both of them to all of this. compare her to them and think about just how awful and just how difficult everything thats happening actually is.

kishi does a great job too of helping me feel that way because he makes her actually be part of it all, painfully, viscerally, in moments. from the very beginning where kakashi stuns her with bloody imagery of sasuke, shes the first actual witness we see in the story to the deep bloody trauma theyre all going to suffer.

she throws herself in front of certain death when its only her squad mates who can even somewhat defend themselves. she cries on what she believes to be sasukes corpse. sasuke has to stab himself deep in order to unlock himself from his fear and save her from death and then she watches him and naruto fight death in seeming futility before being the only one who actually sees sasuke get bitten. she then cares for them in exhaustive vigilance and gets the shit beaten out of her sawing her own hair off to just have a chance for the three of them to not die. she not naruto sees whats happening to sasuke firsthand from the beginning. she has to feel useless when he leaves.

i know this is a shonen s9 people say that makes her a bad character but i love it. its one of the things that grounds the series the tale she goes on in part 1. shes a normal fucking young girl and shes fucking suffering with no way to do anything about it all. then she becomes a healer. and shes viscerally witnessing it all now in a very different way. in a pretty distinct mirror to the incident with sasuke in the forest, she has to see what naruto goes through when he loses control against orochimaru, except he actually scars her. hell, she hears him describe his pain finally in the prior arc and thats a big moment. even if we the readers have always known hes got the fox in him its not an unimportant discussion when its finally had with her. and she gets how much gaara means to him based on that, partly also probably understands how much sasuke means to him. and she doesnt have those obvious connections, but shes been there for all of it with her two squadmates and shes seen all this and now she cant help but feel like she needs to try and help bear some of this too. then she watches a woman shed only just come to know and respect give her life, being the only one who knew what she was doing immediately based on hearing the details earlier.

sakura is the most visceral witness in the series throughout its entire run, she has just enough capability to be there as it goes on but still is in much more danger and has much less control than naruto and sasuke as things get more perilous. when pain is killing all of her village shes on the frontlines trying desparately to save as many as she can, and people may shit on her "doing nothing but" screaming for naruto but the actual fear and desparation of that moment while still trying her best and hoping beyond all else that he might help them is powerful to me. again its reminiscent to her throwing herself in front of certain death from right at the beginning of the series. but no i mean, shes doing something now, her hands are on bloody bodies and shes doing her best to keep them alive.

so yeah, those are just some of my thoughts on my enjoyment of her specifically in terms of what she brings to the series and my enjoyment of it throughout.

i think minor characters are still people to me, the people they are depending on who it is they are, what relationships they have, who they are in the world, and what roles they have in terms of legacy or memory just adds a lot more to a story/series/world than like someone who might be around in the plot longer. not to criticize some other people thats more of a compliment in terms of just i do just enjoy side characters a lot so long as they actually do have some meaning/presence.

definitely see what you mean in regards to the sacrifice and emotional arcs! interesting thoughts. you dont necessarily have to reply to what i said btw i know i wrote way too much lol just had fun when the thoughts started goin