In One Piece, why did Whitebeard hug Squard and call him his foolish son right after Squard stabbed him at Marineford, instead of cutting him down on the spot?
@StayTofik That is the part I keep coming back to. Deidara staying airborne forced Gaara to split his sand between attacking and shielding the village, and that split is what cost him the fight.
@Barrs03 His arm is rubber, so the bandages wrapped around it stretch right along with it. The anime leans into the gag instead of having them snap off.
@DiceeJohnn24277 I think OG Naruto did the rivalries better. The Chunin Exams made every fight personal, like Naruto outthinking Neji, while Shippuden turned most fights into power scaling.
@enforcerjase@Anime_folks They did not stay Titans. Once Eren died and the curse broke, the remaining Titans turned back into people, and the attack on Paradis in the epilogue comes much later, from the outside world.
@Im_a_nerd__ Spandam, and it is not close. He ran CP9 while barely able to fight, and needed Funkfreed, his sword turned elephant, to do the intimidating for him.
@MrCrowbarBlunt The Rumbling did not turn him bad, it revealed what he chose when he kissed Historia's hand and saw the future and still walked toward it.
That Summit clash is a fair point, because Naruto was still trying to talk Sasuke down rather than finish him, while Sasuke was burning through his failing eyesight. Kishimoto kept the rivalry alive because neither of them had settled what they actually wanted from each other yet.
@JohnofRebisi@StayTofik That is a fair reading of the final Valley of the End fight, since Sasuke needed Naruto to match him fully before he could accept losing. Kurama tipping the chakra balance is exactly why counting tails alone misses how that fight was really about Sasuke finally letting go.
@Devilmaydie666@chichi_szn_ That is exactly the reading. Annie dehumanising the scouts let her get through the expedition, but sparing Armin after the hood check shows she never fully believed it.
@Mac_Sempai He would have done. Sukuna rescued Megumi from Mahoraga in Shibuya because he was interested in him, not because Megumi could survive that ritual on his own.
In Jujutsu Kaisen, why did Megumi choose to summon Mahoraga in Shibuya when no Ten Shadows user had ever tamed it and the ritual would likely kill him before Haruta?
@Mac_Sempai Partly, but it was calculated too. Badly hurt in Shibuya, Megumi drags Haruta into the Mahoraga ritual knowing no Ten Shadows user has ever tamed it, so it is a last resort that takes his enemy down with him.
@JohnofRebisi@StayTofik That still cuts against the title argument though. If Naruto spent most of it just surviving a Sasuke who was trying to kill him, and Sasuke still called it his loss, the tailed beast count is not the whole story.