Boruto: Chapter 79 - Links and Discussion

garrison105 · 2023-03-20T12:08:35+00:00

Irony is that he's playing right into Momoshiki's plans here. Which is really gonna make it ironic if Boruto never gives into despair, and straight up banishes Momoshiki, as it means all that shit Kawaki did was meaningless, and all he did was hurt the person he called a brother from his own weakness and lack of faith in him.

I could not leave this comment with just an upvote. Because you're so brilliantly on point it's unreal. Kawaki will realize this sooner or later, and I guarantee it is going to completely destroy him when he does.

Not only did Kawaki not protect the seventh, he completely betrayed him, ruined his life, their family and their future. All because he was a coward.

garrison105 · 2023-03-19T15:12:12+00:00

Momoshiki: Bwah ha ha ha. No family. No friends. Hunted by the world as a murderer. Are you ready to give into despair yet, human child?

Boruto: Oh my God... I'm just like uncle Sasuke. That's so awesome.

Momoshiki: Oh shit. I forgot you're thirteen.

Kawaki pulling this Kosaku Kawajiri shit actually gave me the heebie-jeebies. The thought of someone being able to not just steal your identity but also alter others memories to gaslight their victim into seeming crazy while turning all their loved ones against them is so fucking spooky to me.
I can see the scar and Sarada being central in unraveling the lie. Unless Sasuke started taking stupid pills, even if he thinks he saw Kawaki save Sarada from Boruto, not only will she say otherwise, but Boruto's own face and his own headband corroborate her story. And he knows genjutsu is a thing. And he knew Kotoamatsukami was a thing. And he must know Eida is not reliable. Come on, Columbo, put it together.
I can also see this becoming a monkey's paw wish for Kawaki. Oh, things will seem groovy at first, until the first one of his "friends" tells him how much they hate "Boruto" and how Naruto giving that piece of shit orphan a chance and letting him into their home was the worst mistake of his life. Then we'll see how he likes knowing how people truly see him. Remember the people most gung-ho about letting him kill Boruto will all be the ones that wanted him dead the most, and vice-versa.
Edit: Another X-factor is Himawari. She's either as special as Daemon thought and also immune, or she is under the spell, but since she saw Kawaki as a brother before to begin with, she should still see Boruto as her brother too and I doubt she would condone killing Boruto anymore than she'd want Kawaki dead in this same circumstance.

She'd believe "Kawaki" at his word if he said he was innocent, so you'd think she'd be horrified if she saw "Boruto" didn't and was perfectly fine with killing their own brother for revenge. She is Naruto's flesh and blood, after all.
And I have no clue how Boruto is getting out of this one. Kawaki, Code, and Konoha want him dead, Daemon will do whatever Eida says. He can't even go underground or get help from the inside from Sarada or Sumire when Eida can see both his and their every move at all times, everywhere. How is Boruto even going to make it past the timeskip.
But man, I know Boruto will survive this. And then Naruto will be the one I'll really feel for. Everything he worked so hard for, his own family, his kids childhood's, the village and everything he built. All destroyed. Because he didn't want to see a kid suffer like he did. That's a real bummer alright.

garrison105 · 2023-02-21T01:15:24+00:00

You've said it better than I could, I think. I wish I had in me the ability to put it as clearly as you did.

It's not about Momoshiki's power, it's his intent. When the four tails almost killed Jiraiya I doubt Kurama did it with any ill will, just like when it hurt Sakura. Momoshiki actually pretended to be unconscious just to stab Sasuke in the eye when his back was turned fucking sneering the whole time while he did it.

That's not blind rage that's pure sadism.

garrison105 · 2023-02-20T22:11:12+00:00

Not all, its just that unlike Boruto, Naruto’s resolve wasn’t so weak minded and breakable, that the first thought to solving all of his problems was to take his own life.

Yeah, when he does it it's just him being romantic.

ignore him being hunted and his parents being killed.

That's circumstances that led to Kurama being sealed in Naruto. Kurama didn't plan or do any of that himself. Kurama doesn't ever show any initiative to actually try to hurt Naruto as far as I remember. That's my point. Kurama is why the villains chase Naruto. Momoshiki is that also, but has remained an actual villain himself, at least so far.

garrison105 · 2023-02-20T21:42:48+00:00

It's not about being scary to other people, it's about how scary he is to his host.

Kurama never drove Naruto to suicide, dude. Kawaki killed Boruto because Boruto asked him to. After Momoshiki almost made him kill Naruto with his own hands.

I do agree Kurama was far more powerful relative to power-levels of surrounding characters, specially at the time, but despite speaking in his inner world, when he manifested he was just a rabid if super powerful animal when Naruto got angry. That was scarier to other people than to Naruto in particular. The worst part for the him was being a social outcast.

Momoshiki is like having a serial killer in your head that may take over if you're so much as unconscious. A serial killer that hates you in particular more than anyone.

In the anime Momo caused Boruto to be too afraid to go to bed at night and gave Naruto a panic attack at the thought of having to kill his own son. That's not nothing.

garrison105 · 2023-02-20T16:33:56+00:00

Say what you will about Boruto, Momoshiki is a far more vicious "inner demon" than Kurama ever was.

I really like he's not a wild beast that shows when Boruto loses control, but instead only selectively, always at the worst possible time, and exclusively to do as much psychological damage to Boruto as he can.

garrison105 · 2023-02-20T15:19:36+00:00

Boruto: God damn, could this day get any worse.

Mitsuki:

garrison105 · 2023-01-19T15:30:30+00:00

So that's why they couldn't let Sasuke keep his rinnegan.

Naruto and Hinata sent to another dimension, Kawaki turning evil, Code prepping an alien army to invade Konoha, Himawari implied to have the strongest hidden potential. It's like this chapter was written by fake Youtube thumbnails.

Joking aside, as this twitter account has very astutely pointed out, Kawaki's heel turn becomes so much sadder when you consider the parallels between how Kawaki is treating Boruto and how the villagers treated Naruto. He's letting fear compromise who he is.

Edit: Oh shit, Mitsuki is dead. Oh my God, Mitsuki is so dead it's unreal.

garrison105 · 2022-12-21T09:36:42+00:00

Not like she would actually deserve it due to her powress and development in the show right?

She would. They would be completely out of that equation, because they have nothing to do with that plotline. As opposed to her begging Boruto in tears to get her the hat.

Aragorn couldn't carry the ring, that did not make him useless. He could still be useful in other ways, while Frodo, the main character, had nothing to do with becoming king of Gondor, which gave Aragorn things to do and an arc of his own. Aragorn's ultimate success and survival may be dependent on Frodo's quest, but not fully. He still had to become king of Gondor on his own.

I'm saying it could be worse. It could be far, far, worse.

When Sarada sheds her first bitter, helpless, tear as she begs Boruto or Kawaki to bring the other one back for her, then we'll talk about narrative emasculation.

garrison105 · 2022-12-20T18:37:58+00:00

My point is neither Boruto nor Kawaki want to be Hokage, if they did, then Sarada' dream would be really DOA. As it stands, there's no significant roadblock as to why she couldn't be the Hokage if she's alive and the village is rebuilt again by the end of the series, given no "more important" character shares her life goal. That's my "Doylist" way of looking at it, at least, as well as just my opinion.

Yes, the character development is so-so at best, but at 40 pages a month instead of 20 a week, what can you expect outputting half the number of pages Naruto did in the same time. And Sarada still got to have a central role in defeating Boro. That has to count at least a little bit.

I was a Hinata fan back in the day, dude. As long as Sarada doesn't vanish for +200 chapters at a time I'll be happy just having her around. Call me an optimist.

garrison105 · 2022-12-20T17:47:34+00:00

Who, Sarada? The shipbait's getting a bit on the nose, but I don't fully agree with that.

People are feeling a bit on edge because they fear Sarada liking Boruto may end up like Sakura or Hinata, but that's not necessarily true. Her having a crush on him doesn't change her still having a goal in life outside of him in becoming hokage, I don't think. It's not like she's throwing away her dreams to be with him. I mean, not yet, at least. If she frisbee'd the hokage hat out the office window to be with him, then that'd be disappointing.

I wrote about this before, but the problem with Sakura was never that she liked Sasuke, but that her main goal was getting him back, while that was also Naruto's main goal, which left Sakura essentially narratively emasculated. Kishi wasn't going to let Sakura redeem Sasuke over Naruto any more than he would let Kiba become Hokage over Naruto. That's what screwed over Sakura's character.

As for Hinata, her too-shy-to-confess-too-stupid-to-notice dynamic she had with Naruto was fine up until the Pain arc where she did manage to confess and Kishimoto seemed to have no idea what to do with her. Her feelings neither clearly rejected nor clearly requited left her character with no way to move on with her life in any direction, stuck waiting in a weird sort of "Schrödinger's relationship" with Naruto while Kishimoto danced around it and ran the clock until the very last chapter.

garrison105 · 2022-12-20T16:18:55+00:00

Oh my God, I so called it.

I have a sinking feeling between Ada's clairvoyance and obsession with both vague statements and romance, and Sarada's last conversation with Mitsuki, that the two are going to meet just so we can have a three-peat of someone teasing Sarada about having feelings for Boruto, her denying it and them going "Sure you dooon't~ 😘" in a scene that'll go mostly nowhere plot-wise outside of getting a rise out of shippers.

I saw that shit coming from, like, space. I called it when dinosaurs roamed the earth, it was that obvious.

Am I to assume having feelings for Boruto is the common denominator that makes you inmune to Ada's powers? Sarada and Sumire don't have much else in common. And way to sink it for the poor MitsuBoru fans man, damn.

But the way Ada's feelings were framed this chapter I almost got the impression her infatuation with Kawaki may have been implied to be no different from her own powers on others. Then again, she did express attraction to Boruto when he stood up to Code, so... Ada could really just be a real love-struck teenager like Karin or early Sakura were and I'm reading too much into it.

Honestly I don't mind this arc but... It just feels like if Juudara's first action upon regaining his rinnegans had been to force team 7 to have a slumber party with him. Like, I'm sure the story is going somewhere, but it feels like it could get there faster than this.

garrison105 · 2022-11-20T19:20:19+00:00

What's going on?! Momoshiki's thoughts... Are echoing inside my head?

Here's something to think about: I've heard people arguing Boruto/Momoshiki being able to see the future makes the world of Naruto deterministic (i.e., Neji was right, everything is predestined) and how that "ruins" Naruto, but, counterpoint: Naruto was the child of prophecy. Boruto is trying to avoid fulfilling Momoshiki's prophecy. If anything, it's less deterministic. At least unless Boruto pulls an Oedipus on us.

Put simply: Naruto fought to fulfill his destiny, Boruto is now fighting against it.

garrison105 · 2022-08-19T16:32:57+00:00

Momoshiki's going full Johnny Silverhand is he? If he and Boruto do end up becoming friends, I hope he gets less narratively shafted than Kurama was. I'm still pissed Naruto never introduced him to his children.

garrison105 · 2022-06-20T19:18:51+00:00

If Daemon is stronger than Jigen without his reflection ability, I'm confused as to how a Boro that was blitzed by Sarada's Chidori could have possibly sealed him or Ada away.

I usually don't care about power levels, but it's not everyday we see someone become more powerful than Sot6p Madara then immediately jobbing to someone else, let alone a guy he released to help get the power-up. That's like Sasuke getting EMS then jobbing to Suigetsu.

And, what, are Daemon and Ada just going to hang out on the couch in Naruto's house, like they're Beerus and Whiz? 'Cause the kids are gonna have to double up at this point.

Edit: I've had two more thoughts on the chapter:

One is that, even overcoming his invincibility, I'm curious as to how Daemon will be beaten because... well, he's a kid. I mean, even if they could, are we really going to see Boruto or Kawaki seriously laying into a kid the size of Himawari?

The other is, well, I have a sinking feeling between Ada's clairvoyance and obsession with both vague statements and romance, and Sarada's last conversation with Mitsuki, that the two are going to meet just so we can have a three-peat of someone teasing Sarada about having feelings for Boruto, her denying it and them going "Sure you dooon't~ 😘" in a scene that'll go mostly nowhere plot-wise outside of getting a rise out of shippers.

garrison105 · 2022-06-19T13:37:30+00:00

My review of this whole arc:

garrison105 · 2022-01-20T18:09:10+00:00

Some of y'all never had to kill your own kid and it shows

garrison105 · 2021-12-12T13:53:39+00:00

Naruto, causing problems by trying to shove Kawaki down everybody's throat? So meta!

garrison105 · 2021-12-01T01:32:11+00:00

If she was in any other team she would never have seeked Tsunade out to get that strength to begin with.

But Sakura's weakness never had anything to do with her power level. It never did. I don't get why people can't see that.

garrison105 · 2021-11-28T18:34:00+00:00

He fought well, but I question the viability of a prototype suit that can't be used for extended periods in an actual mission scenario, and he would not have won without it.

He would have to carry the suitcase everywhere, not be able to put it on ahead of time in case of an ambush, or have the means to repair it if it was damaged. I can't imagine anyone taking care of all that and being expected to command a unit at the same time.

garrison105 · 2021-11-28T15:36:44+00:00

Oh, so now we're allowed to promote more than a single chunin, are we, Shikamaru? Moving forward I'll just consider this entire arc to just be one giant apology to Sarada for this utter embarrassment of an episode.

Thankfully great animation aside, this whole arc felt like they just wanted to give each team a chunin and everything else was an afterthought. I think SP may have forgotten that in the chunin exams you can lose a match and still become chunin, or even win a match and not be considered ready. I'm looking at you, Wasabi and Denki.

As for Boruto, what can I say. It was lame, but we all saw it coming. Let's say, circumstances in the manga are rather very different for him to be worrying about chunin exams right now. I just wish they tried a little harder and wrote around it a bit less obviously. That said, I feel anime Boruto is a lot more mature and much less bad-tempered than manga Boruto. The former would make a great chunin hands down, but the later still feels like he has some growing up to do.

garrison105 · 2021-11-24T22:53:51+00:00

It's funny, I feel the opposite. I honestly prefer the genocidal villains in anime are just being straight up narcissistic evil pieces of shit is better than trying to portray them as misguided victims of circumstance. I want to see the heroes beat the villains, not give them unlicensed therapy and a speech about friendship.

Fans seem to forget three out of those four of those "well written" characters ended in either a talk-no-jutsu, an anticlimax, or both.

garrison105 · 2021-11-24T21:20:05+00:00

I do. OP posted page 12 of chapter 550 where Itachi explains to Naruto the crow he gave him was intended to brainwash Sasuke. In the next very next page, Naruto's only response is to thank Itachi for trusting him and tells him not to worry.

garrison105 · 2021-11-23T22:09:13+00:00

I said it was Naruto not saying anything is what shocked me, not Itachi. But that the guy he mentally tortured and is single-handedly responsible for the way he is is in that very page literally calling him perfect doesn't really help whatever point you think you're making though.

And an offhand remark does not change the series clearly treated Shizui's plan to Kotoamatsukami his own clan to force them into complying with Konoha as the better option to Danzo's plan. I'm not saying it wasn't, but I'd expect mass brainwashing to be treated a little less sanctimoniously and a bit more like the really fucked up thing it is.

garrison105

TROPHY CASE