Naruto Naruto Wrap Up

[Antimatter]

Okay, so this is bugging me: just what is the technology level of this world?

At first, it looks maybe a bit post industrial, with all the plumbing and such. We saw one maybe-gun in the wave arc, and never again. We didn't see any cars to my knowledge. I think we saw a few medical monitors which suggested video technology existed, and that was backed up by the cameras and TV screens for the Daimyo meeting.

And then bam, finale has Naruto with a fairly advanced looking laptop, and Konoha has massive new york style skyscrapers and such. Perhaps the new peaceful era allowed for more advanced construction/technology to flourish? I'm thinking such tech and buildings had to have existed before, but were unused due to all the instability. Maybe an allegory to post-war Japan's technological revolution.

 

[Knyght]

From two different interviews:

"Actually, the world of Naruto doesn’t differ very much from our present time. TV, refrigerators and air conditioners exist in the world. The only exceptions are weapons and explosives, which I’ve decided to set in a much earlier era. That’s why you don’t see firearms."

"Firstly, projectile weapons such as guns aren't allowed. (The one exception is Inari's bowgun.) Guns aren't suited to ninja. Gunpowder is used in the anime, though I don't think it should be there. And, vehicles such as aeroplanes are not allowed. I try to restrain technology that can be used for war... For example, if missiles were in it, it'd be the end. (laughs)"

Pretty sure these were from many a year ago though. And yeah, I figure technological advancement went up through the roof now that so much of the population wasn't killing or being killed from missions, battles and wars.

 

[Antimatter]

On the subject of character development. The members of team 7 I feel had the most character development was Sakura. Naruto is basically the same moron he was at the beginning of the series and Sasuke for has changed his allegiances so many times I can't believe that this time was the last time.

Too bad the author decided to take a steaming shit all over that with the last 2 chapters. Honestly, though I don't care for her, even I feel bad at how badly she was character-assassinated. At lease Naruto remains constant in his charming dumbfuckery.


Also: Shed blood, sweat & tears to graduate (ninja)school and become badass ninja chicks: end up popping out kids and making sandwiches in the kitchen. (Go Tenten, don't fall prey to this shit!)

Hilariously ass-backward. Although the mini-series next year could prove me wrong (doubtful) if it reveals the women are still active, badass ninja.

They are all shown off duty though, and yeah, solders off duty back home are pretty much your average joe/jane.

Granted, its still odd how most of the characters are still shown wearing non-uniform stuff for some reason, while others are in full kit. I've never understood the uniform policy for the narutoverse.

 

[13ry4n]

Okay, so this is bugging me: just what is the technology level of this world?

At first, it looks maybe a bit post industrial, with all the plumbing and such. We saw one maybe-gun in the wave arc, and never again. We didn't see any cars to my knowledge. I think we saw a few medical monitors which suggested video technology existed, and that was backed up by the cameras and TV screens for the Daimyo meeting.

And then bam, finale has Naruto with a fairly advanced looking laptop, and Konoha has massive new york style skyscrapers and such. Perhaps the new peaceful era allowed for more advanced construction/technology to flourish? I'm thinking such tech and buildings had to have existed before, but were unused due to all the instability. Maybe an allegory to post-war Japan's technological revolution.

You know what else is weird technologically? That one of pein's bodies was a straight up cyborg with built in fragmentation missiles. Sasori may've been a cyborg made of wood but at least that kind of worked.

Another weird thing is that all the roads are just dirt roads. There's like no asphalt, no concrete, just dirt. I could accept this if it was just like the main big roads what with them being too large, but the roads in Konoha the main military power? Not so much.

 

[Altered Nova]

Their non-weapon technology has always been quite advanced. Even in Part 1, Sasuke had a television in his bedroom (just before he defected) and Anko and some ANBU were watching security camera footage of Gaara completing the second test in record time on a VCR during the chuunin exam.

It only got crazier in part 2. Suddenly Sasuke was visiting a ruined modern metropolis with skyscrapers to buy clothes and supplies from weird cat obsessed people, the Daimyos were teleconferencing with crazy chakratech video transmitters, and Shizune and Sakura were sequencing Zetsu DNA on a computer to figure out they were related to Hashirama during the Fourth Shinobi World War.

None of the technology from the epilogue is new or more advanced than stuff we've seen previously. It's just shown so rarely that most people forget it was there all along.

Chidori and Raikiri bug me in general. They're the same jutsu but with two different names and ranks and got retconned into a lightning jutsu in Part 2, along with the reveal that Sasuke had done his nature transformation training in two weeks as well as everything else. We could have had the Raikiri as the elemental version of the Chidori, justifying its higher rank as its more powerful, removes the need for suicidal high-speed movement to pull it off and making Part 1 Sasuke's accomplishment less over the top.

Plus Sasuke inventing a load of Chidori variants instead of Kakashi.

Even weirder is the Third Raikage's Hell Stab, which was basically the Chidori/Raikiri on crack. It was so powerful that the One-Finger Nukite version was able to cut off all of Gyuuki's tails and even pierce the Third Raikage's own Rasenshuriken-resistant Lightning Armor. But it's only B-ranked!

 

[ankokudaishogun]

A-3rd's Hellstab is basically Sakura's Megaton Punch technique, Lightning Chakra Edition. And Sakura's Megaton Punch is a C-Rank.
C-Rank+Element=B-Rank

The Rank of the Techniques isn't dependant on the power, but on the difficulty.

 

[Altered Nova]

Um no, Sakura's Cherry Blossom Impact gathers lots of chakra in the hand and then releases it at the moment of impact. It's like a chakra explosion punch.

Hell Stab doesn't do that. Hell Stab involves gathering huge amounts of lightning chakra in the fingertips and then stabs with it to pierce the target. The chakra stays in the hand and isn't released at the moment of impact. It's literally the exact same principle as Chidori/Raikiri, except the chakra is focused into an even smaller area (1-4 fingertips as opposed to the entire hand) and presumably more chakra is used (considering this jutsu was used to own a bijuu).

 

[e39042]

Chidori is actually pretty hilarious when you consider Kakashi was inspired by the Rasengan when inventing it.
Whereas the Rasengan is an example of extremely complex form manipulation, the Chidori is just a bunch of lightning chakra focused around the hand.
It's just so inelegant by comparison.

Unlike most people here I don't have many complaints about the Manga. Sure it could have been better, and Shippuden didn't live up to part 1, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

 

[Emerald Oracle]

Chidori is actually pretty hilarious when you consider Kakashi was inspired by the Rasengan when inventing it.
Whereas the Rasengan is an example of extremely complex form manipulation, the Chidori is just a bunch of lightning chakra focused around the hand.
It's just so inelegant by comparison.

Unlike most people here I don't have many complaints about the Manga. Sure it could have been better, and Shippuden didn't live up to part 1, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

Generally, I enjoyed the manga too. I'm pretty easy to please and I honestly had fun with pretty much all of the manga, for the spectacle if nothing else, but the ending was for some reason deeply unsatisfying.

 

[13ry4n]

Chidori is actually pretty hilarious when you consider Kakashi was inspired by the Rasengan when inventing it.
Whereas the Rasengan is an example of extremely complex form manipulation, the Chidori is just a bunch of lightning chakra focused around the hand.
It's just so inelegant by comparison.

Unlike most people here I don't have many complaints about the Manga. Sure it could have been better, and Shippuden didn't live up to part 1, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

Generally, I enjoyed the manga too. I'm pretty easy to please and I honestly had fun with pretty much all of the manga, for the spectacle if nothing else, but the ending was for some reason deeply unsatisfying.

The manga probably would've benefited from being worse. At least then it could've it hit that coveted So bad it's good. As it stands I just kinda operates at a four out of ten. The bad side of meh. There were moments of brilliance though that showed that it could've been more.

 

[Shirotsume]

Chidori is actually pretty hilarious when you consider Kakashi was inspired by the Rasengan when inventing it.
Whereas the Rasengan is an example of extremely complex form manipulation, the Chidori is just a bunch of lightning chakra focused around the hand.
It's just so inelegant by comparison.

Unlike most people here I don't have many complaints about the Manga. Sure it could have been better, and Shippuden didn't live up to part 1, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

Keep in mind that kakashi was also like 8 when he came up with it. As genius as he was, he was probably more along the lines of "Super Awesome Punchy Jutsu!"

Given that even as a kid, it WAS kakashi, assume more syllables.

 

[Hoki]

Chidori is actually pretty hilarious when you consider Kakashi was inspired by the Rasengan when inventing it.
Whereas the Rasengan is an example of extremely complex form manipulation, the Chidori is just a bunch of lightning chakra focused around the hand.
It's just so inelegant by comparison.

Unlike most people here I don't have many complaints about the Manga. Sure it could have been better, and Shippuden didn't live up to part 1, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

Keep in mind that kakashi was also like 8 when he came up with it. As genius as he was, he was probably more along the lines of "Super Awesome Punchy Jutsu!"

Given that even as a kid, it WAS kakashi, assume more syllables.

nah, Kakashi would've named his new technique simple, as he was a serious person from the start.

It would be Minato who would come up with a pretty grandiose name for his student's new technique, like "erupting burning shocking lightning blade pierce zero."

 

[Knyght]

Since I bemoaned Chidori/Raikiri, I'll carry on with the jutsu and abilities that bugged me for one reason or another.

That Jutsu: Should never have been mentioned.

Flying Thunder God Jutsu: Minato should have created this. 'Nuff said.

Chakra Ninja Tools: Most of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist's weapons disappointed me. The lightning sword, beheading sword, axe-and-hammer and exploding sword all struck me as lame in comparison to Samehada and the shapeshifter. On the other end of the scale, Samehada had too much going on. It could just been a big sword that shreds with its and it would have been a fine blade or, at most, be able to absorb chakra and nothing more.

I wasn't a fan of the Treasured Tools of the Sage of Six Paths which had some weird powers, were completely abadoned as a plot point and it's never clear why they were created in the first place. Itachi's Yata Mirror felt like it should just been a shield as an intrinsic part of Susanoo instead of its own weapon, albeit without its special power.

Impure World Resurrection: Edo Tensei should require a continuous supply of chakra from the summoner to maintain their existence. If the summoner dies, the summoned will vanish since it is impossible for them exist without that supply of chakra.

In Part 1, it should have been explicitly clear that the Hashirama and Tobirama weren't at full strength and that Orochimaru was directly controlling them through hand-seals. In Part 2, controlling that many Edo Tensei should have required Kabuto's complete focus and he would have to make them dormant during the night to recover his exhausted chakra.

Sharingan: Kotoamatsukami, Kagutsuchi, Kamui, Izanagi, Izanami and Perfect Susanoo were just too diverse or powerful. I preferred it when Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi and Susanoo appeared to be the only MS jutsu and the assumption that EMS came with two new jutsu like my ideal Mangekyou Sharingan.

Shadow Clone Jutsu: The Shadow Clone Jutsu and Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu are listed as separate jutsu with different ranks and classes despite being literally the same jutsu. Naruto learned this B-rank ninjutsu/A-rank kinjutsu in half a day when he struggled to learn the Transformation Jutsu, couldn't learn the Clone Jutsu and even couldn't master the Summoning Jutsu even after improving his chakra control.

The shadow clones' ability to transfer chakra and experience is only discovered mid-way through Part 2 and Naruto was completely ignorant of it, making him look like a dumbass. It was invented by Tobirama. With that, it felt like every single skill Naruto had was shared with one another person such as Jiraiya and Minato.

Lastly, the shadow clone training method was a cheap method of making Naruto stronger whilst also being completely redundant. The only time he truly took advantage of it was for nature transformation which he was something he could and should have learned with Jiraiya during the training trip. There are many more things he could have used it for but apparently never bothered to and it was just swept under the rug.

 

[goldenarms]

Chidori is actually pretty hilarious when you consider Kakashi was inspired by the Rasengan when inventing it.
Whereas the Rasengan is an example of extremely complex form manipulation, the Chidori is just a bunch of lightning chakra focused around the hand.
It's just so inelegant by comparison.

Unlike most people here I don't have many complaints about the Manga. Sure it could have been better, and Shippuden didn't live up to part 1, but I enjoyed it for what it was.

Keep in mind that kakashi was also like 8 when he came up with it. As genius as he was, he was probably more along the lines of "Super Awesome Punchy Jutsu!"

Given that even as a kid, it WAS kakashi, assume more syllables.

nah, Kakashi would've named his new technique simple, as he was a serious person from the start.

It would be Minato who would come up with a pretty grandiose name for his student's new technique, like "erupting burning shocking lightning blade pierce zero."

Poor Minato... Naruto's first legendary super badass ninja, reduced to being the prototype of Kakashi's Crouching Moron Hidden Badass routine.

Since I bemoaned Chidori/Raikiri, I'll carry on with the jutsu and abilities that bugged me for one reason or another.

That Jutsu: Should never have been mentioned.

Alternatively, it should have been named something ridiculous in advance; then it could have become a running joke. Observe:

Naruto: "Looks like I'm going to have to use that after all..."

Konohamaru: [sweating] "The Super-Cool Badass Technique?? Here??"

[everyone gasps]

Naruto: [smirking] "Yeah, looks like it's the end of the road for y--what's this?" [takes proffered slip of paper]

Clerk: "A bill. For the projected damages you'll incur."

Naruto: [sweating] "...guud dem... is that a real number? How about--"

Clerk: "No checks."

Naruto: [crestfallen] "Aw man, looks like we gotta run away again..."

I wasn't a fan of the Treasured Tools of the Sage of Six Paths which had some weird powers, were completely abadoned as a plot point and it's never clear why they were created in the first place.

There's probably a world-centric legend involved in that. Something like the Sage having to defeat an enemy with cunning because power was useless against it. It just so happens that legends in the Narutoverse tend to be more true than not.

Impure World Resurrection: Edo Tensei should require a continuous supply of chakra from the summoner to maintain their existence. If the summoner dies, the summoned will vanish since it is impossible for them exist without that supply of chakra.

I'd agree the summons should end if the caster dies, as they're all tied to him. The constant supply of chakra, not so much without severely restricting what Edo Tensei does. I'd go for a time limit for how long a zombie could exist, like say, one hour for every XX units of chakra donated to the summon, plus Edo Tensei zombie chakra cannot be used to summon another Edo Tensei zombie.

The shadow clones' ability to transfer chakra and experience is only discovered mid-way through Part 2 and Naruto was completely ignorant of it, making him look like a dumbass.

To be fair, Naruto had never used his clones in multiple tasks outside of beating ass alongside himself, and they habitually didn't last beyond a minute even then. It's no surprise Kakashi had to show him the hidden skill, since it seemingly wasn't written in the secret scroll. I don't know why Jiraiya didn't think of it, though; wouldn't it have made his master plan of Naruto mastering Kurama's chakra tons easier?

It was invented by Tobirama. With that, it felt like every single skill Naruto had was shared with one another person such as Jiraiya and Minato.

Minato suffers the same problem, given that all of his legendary techniques were cribbed from either Tobirama's stuff or his wife. Talk about absent fathers...

 

[Hoki]

Lets talk about the one thing that caused so much drama during this week: the end of the Naruto shipping wars.

Any fandom has shipping wars as its part of the culture. Naruto has one of the most heated shipping rivalries in recent memory, so much that after Kishi revealed who ended up with who, the Internet exploded with both rejoicing and outrage.

Lets get this one started. I'll just focus on the three most popular ships so to not take too much time.

The eventual winner: NarutoxHinata

Spoiler

I'm not going to lie, I am a supporter of this ship, and when I was younger, I went on harsh internet arguments on why this is the pairing I want to see succeed. I would admit that if Kishi had not made it come true, I would be sad, but not sad enough to completely lose faith in humanity and all that rage filled comments. I've stressed in one of my arguments that if Naruto did choose Sakura over her, Hinata would've gracefully accepted it. She would be hurt, of course, but so long as Naruto is happy, then all would be well. For Naruto to finally return Hinata's feelings for him and eventually have a family together gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

From observation alone, one can tell that this was the only threat to the NarutoxSakura pairing, as SasukexSakura has been considered by many to be a bust ever since Sasuke went crazy. To some, you were either a NaruHina fan or a NaruSaku fan, and your secondary pairing of choice is not important, and the arguments between who Naruto should be with were always so heated. When NaruHina became canon, there was much rejoicing for its supporters and much hated outrage for its detractors as we have seen these past couple of days. For me, NaruHina winning is somewhat a change from the usual "Main hero ends up with Main heroine in the end." How many anime and manga series has ended with the main hero ending up with the secondary love interest? I can't really name a lot, but Naruto is now one of them. Many detractors claim that NaruHina only won because of Kishi selling out or other reasons that I can't really remember at this moment, but in the end this was the decided result.

The surprise winner:SasukexSakura

Spoiler

This came as a shock to most and me as previous chapters had shown that Sasuke is willing to do anything to do his goals, even going so far as try to kill Sakura on one occasion if she stood in his way. For it to succeed in the end is quite puzzling to me honestly. I can't really see how Sakura still had feelings for Sasuke after the things he did or tried to do to her but as one poster on the NaruSaku forums puts it, Sakura chose to not let go.

The tragically sunk: NarutoxSakura

Spoiler

The first known ship with the greatest chance of succeeding gets sunk in the endgame. I said in the NaruHina paragraph that I wanted that one to succeed but in all honesty, this was the one I expected to succeed in the end. The reasons are quite simple really. First, traditionally speaking, a shonen hero usually ends up with the first love interest and since Sakura is the first love interest, I expected her to win in the end. Personally, I wouldn't like it, but it was tradition, and very few authors went against tradition. Secondly, there were a lot of teasing about this paring during the course of the manga's run, and as the NaruSaku supporters eloquently put it, it was the only reasonable conclusion that can be reached.

I expect people to say that I greatly enjoyed the suffering felt by the NaruSaku fans when their ship finally sunk completely. I won't say that I did not, but only because their reactions to it were so over the top it was very hilarious. Take MoB for example. He hates Hinata with a passion, so although he's not an actual NaruSaku supporter, he flipped his shit when NaruHina won, which was hilarious. He probably hates me now though. As for NaruSaku supporters, their reactions to the endgame pairing result ranged from denial (which is probably the most acceptable way of dealing with it), over the top ranting, donating their Naruto merch somewhere (someone even donated his entire Naruto manga collection to a library), discarding/destroying their Naruto merch to things like quitting school, becoming really depressed, and other stuff. I could understand the first examples, the last ones I can't really wrap my head around them. After reading some of the more extreme reactions (getting depressed, quitting school, etc) I felt sad because some people really were too emotionally invested in the pairing that not being canon was the equivalent of getting hit with emotional trauma. They were so devastated by it that going to any NaruSaku related site feels like visiting a desolate, war torn city.

Wow that turned out longer than I thought. Anyway, that's how I felt about the three major pairings now that the manga has ended.

The next thing to look forward to is whether or not the NanoFate people would flip their shit like what NaruSaku people did if the author of Nanoha decided to not make NanoFate happen.

 

[Knyght]

If only there was Naruto x FemSasuke. Too bad.

To be fair, Naruto had never used his clones in multiple tasks outside of beating ass alongside himself, and they habitually didn't last beyond a minute even then. It's no surprise Kakashi had to show him the hidden skill, since it seemingly wasn't written in the secret scroll. I don't know why Jiraiya didn't think of it, though; wouldn't it have made his master plan of Naruto mastering Kurama's chakra tons easier?

Oh, I can justify it easily. We've come up with how many excuses over the years? I've probably got a post somewhere explaining why no-one came up with this shadow clone training earlier but it still just gives a bad impression of Naruto, Kakashi and Jiraiya.

Now I don't think the training shortcut should have been a thing at all, but the idea of clones sharing memories is a good idea. It just should have come up way earlier like in the Forest of Death or during the training. Apparently Kakashi assumed Naruto already knew about it too.

 

[MastaofBitches]

Take MoB for example. He hates Hinata with a passion, so although he's not an actual NaruSaku supporter, he flipped his shit when NaruHina won, which was hilarious. He probably hates me now though.

Of course I do. I hate you and all of your wretched kind, and would be eternally grateful if you would kindly remove yourself from the Gene pool, before you contaminate it any further.

The next thing to look forward to is whether or not the NanoFate people would flip their shit like what NaruSaku people did if the author of Nanoha decided to not make NanoFate happen.

Except that will never happen.

 

[ankokudaishogun]

question: does Jiraiya even KNOW kage bunshin? I'm not sure.

 

[goldenarms]

question: does Jiraiya even KNOW kage bunshin? I'm not sure.

He does; he used one as a test for Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko before he left.

 

[ankokudaishogun]

question: does Jiraiya even KNOW kage bunshin? I'm not sure.

He does; he used one as a test for Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko before he left.

Right, I completely forgot about it.

 

[coconutED]

/shipping stuff/

I favored NaruHina myself, but I agree that NaruSaku appeared to be a foregone conclusion throughout most of the run. My money, however, was on the series ending with everything relationship wise being left ambiguous, so NaruHina was still a pleasant surprise. What I did find shocking, as well as a little disturbing, was SasuSaku. While popular opinion goes that she never gave up on him and such, I can't help but recognize some rather unfortunate implications.

As for all the raging going on amongst the NaruSaku and anti-NaruHina types, I must admit that I find it amusing. At the same time, I can sort of see where they're coming from. There are a few series I can think of where my preferred ship didn't win (pretty sure that's the case for virtually everyone who enjoys works of fiction), and I even rage-quit at least one of them specifically because of it. That being said, the bitching, moaning, wailing and gnashing of teeth is so over the top I can't help but laugh. I mean, really, how often does canon ever truly sink a ship? NaruSaku, NaruIno, NaruTen, NaruTema, NaruShion, NaruHarem, etc, etc, etc... It's still possible to support those ships, and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[13ry4n]

One other problem I had with the series was battles between Genjutsu users.
Genjutsu worked best when one character got trapped which allowed in all kinds of insane shit. Shikamaru vs Tayuya for instance shows off what genjutsu could do and also how to counter it.

The only time where two genjutsu users fought each other was Kurenai vs Itachi and Sasuke vs Itachi. The former was over really quickly because Itachi is Kishimoto's Husbando. The latter went on too long because Kishimoto didn't know which one of his husbando he wanted to win.

 

[Shirotsume]

In all honestly, just about any relationship Sakura is involved in is gonna be an unhealthy one, she doesn't have any emotional maturity at all- which makes the SasuSaku make a lot of (disturbing) sense.

TBH, NaruSaku is my least favorite ship at all, just because tbh that's gonna end with her physically abusing him (worse than she already does).

 

[13ry4n]

TBH, NaruSaku is my least favorite ship at all, just because tbh that's gonna end with her physically abusing him (worse than she already does).

Yeah Sakura isn't as bad as say Louise or Naru and her tendencies were exaggerated in the anime, but yeah I understand.

 

[daniel_gudman]

Personally, I think having Sasuke run off to Orochimaru so he could defeat Itachi was used wrong. It ate too much of the story, and it starved all the other plot threads.

The Akatsuki were too weak. All of them should have been as scary as Itachi and Kisame. The problem is they got introduced too quickly and defeated too quickly. They lacked power as bosses and narrative weight as bad guys.

It should not have been possible for a slacker like Shikamaru to even seriously inconvenience one of them, let alone plot his downfall. It would have been beautiful if Hidan single-handedly creamed the whole team and ganked Asuma, got driven off by Lee ("man, I'm kinda tired and this seems like a hassle, let's go"), and then right when Shikamaru had him, he used "kai" and cancelled the shadowbind and then cut off Shikamaru's arm and was like, "that's some nice, dark chakra. Hate me more, loser." and then walked off to let him stew in his juices.

The jinchuuriki weren't important enough. There should have been, like, a thousand chapters of the Akatsuki showing up to kidnap a jinchuuriki, then Naruto interrupts with a Rasengan, then we get introduced to the Vessel and maybe their team-mates and their village and the Akatsuki that was assigned to them. Sometimes Naruto wins and the Akatsuki is driven off or even killed; sometimes he loses and the jinchuuriki gets kidnapped and eventually died. Fan favs could even be re-used when the Akatsuki just tried again. Or Orochimaru kidnapped one.

In short, Part 2 should have been about assembling the Dragonballs.

And then, after that, Part 3 is the Akatsuki imploding as they each tried to seize the completed (or semi-complete or whatever) "juubi" for their own harebrained schemes. That's when we learn that Tobi is really Obito who's also Madara's puppet, and Hidan summons a literal god into the world (that Jashin dood), and Kakuuzu is trying for a complete set of "Five Kages = five hearts" and it's all just a big mess where nobody's cooperating.

That sounds like it would be hard to keep track of though, so just slap everybody into one of two teams, "Good guys" or "Bad guys", and then fufill the need for audience complexity by just adding another layer of "man behind the man" for the bad guys whenever. Why not!?