Character Rating Thread #20: Nagato

[Toastykins]

http://iareawesomeness.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/nagato-as-pain.jpg


"We are but men, drawn to act in the name of revenge we deem to be justice. But when we call our vengeance justice, it only breeds more revenge... forging the first link in the chains of hatred."

[GangstaKage]

10/10. If I could give him higher in the polls I would. This has to be my absolute favorite villain, from anything. Except maybe Gin or Kabuto. I just thought Nagato was so...real? For lack of a better word. I think his motivations were amazing. His abilities were cool. There is very few I have to complain about when it comes to Pein :D

[cursedneji18]

i give nagato a 9/10. i like his struggle of trying to live a semi-normal life with his friends even though his parents were killed in front of him then he had to watch another one close to him die and that was the last straw. however i dont like how naruto was able to talk him about down. that was just stupid! but i blame that on kishi doing the usual 'shonen main character can change everyone' thing but still nagato allowed himself to be pulled into that bullshit.

[Boot]

nagata was an emo clown whose only role was to be a gateway to naruto's epic sage mode..

1/10

[Pokeaotics]

nagata was an emo clown whose only role was to be a gateway to naruto's epic sage mode..

1/10
For once, I agree. I thought he was a terrible character who was even more emo than Sasuke, if that's possible. He was ugly as hell, also.
Pein gets a full ten, but Nagato...? One from me. v.v

Also, thanks for making the thread. I've been meaning to get to it for a few days but I've been swamped with homework....

[Toastykins]

Nagato and Pain are counted as one in the same, here, since they always were to begin with.

I for one found him to be one of the best villains the manga's ever had. I give him a 10. His was the perfect philosophy to challenge Naruto and his entire view on life. He was built to be Naruto's villain, and filled the role perfectly. Everything about him just worked. You say he was "emo", I say he was just broken. A broken human being whose pain twisted his previously optimistic self into a god of destruction, seeing war and annihilation on unfathomable levels as the only way to really achieve peace, even if only for a little while.

And while I hated how he died at first, looking at it again, it really makes sense and works beautifully with his character. He was never evil, so of course he wasn't going to put up a fight. He didn't always have those views about everything, and seeing Naruto - who had unwittingly adopted everything Nagato himself used to believe in and trained under the same sensei, no less - he saw hope. A chance that maybe peace could be attained in a method different from what he had previously convinced himself was the only way.

"I just want to protect them". That is Nagato. He just wanted peace. And if Naruto can go through what he did and still see another way to go about things, then Naruto's stronger than he was. Thus, he entrusted his dream of peace to him. That's why he was "talked down" by Naruto, because he himself never wanted to go through with his plan in the first place. It wasn't in his nature. Naruto offered an alternative route, and Nagato took it.

[NaruxHina_4_Ever]

I'll give him a six
For wht he did he was a solid enough character
However I found him to be lacking in many areas

as a fighter he was great and unique
as a character I found his ultimate move to be a bit overdone (Everyones alive wtf?)
His resigned and twisted logic was good and interesting but I think it could have been taken further and really made more of an inpact then the sudden change to good at the end

[Kazuma Kenchi]

Nagato is awesome imo, 8/10 v.v (emos ftw!)

[Kankurotto]

An insecure 7.

Whenever his name is mentioned, I feel quite lonely regarding how he ended up reviving the victims of Leaf. That I'm satisfied with how that arc ended, that is.

[Raikage's left hand]

1/10.

He was a whiny bitch, a fuck-up and a loser who got talked into killing himself.

He was horrible.

[Mattus]

Before Naruto went to see him I would've given him a 7, maybe even a gracious 8. Because unlike three of the other facepalm worthy people in this thread, all of the characters don't have to be perfect and make only good decisions.

His mission was kind of generic but he went about it in a less generic way.

His end? My god. I actually want those 30 seconds of my life back. After spending what...15 years or so being bitter, angry, and seeking revenge he just gives up? What the fuck? Seriously that has got to be the shittiest decision I have seen any managaka make. And keep in mind I am including Kubo's decision to make Aizen a character.

Naruto just walks up and talks for half a chapter and then Nagato changes his mind and revives everyone. Come on. His personality, techniques, and mission weren't bad at all but he gets a solid 2 for the awful way he left.

[Fossil4182]

He's got to be one of the better characters in the series. He gets a solid ten from me.

He's the only character who's motivation and philosophical ground doesn't fit into a traditional archetype seen in manga. The cycles of peace and war is a fairly unique motivation and end goal for a character to have. Its also cool that there is a literature base for his beliefs which is also a nice addition to a character. I juxtapose Nagato's beliefs versus the philosophies of characters like Naruto (unyielding optimism), Sasuke (irrational hatred), and Madara (ultimate control) and see nothing be generic character types. I will grant that those character's stories have evolved making the more complicated, but they still retain their underlying beliefs.

On an ability scale, I don't there are many characters that would be about to compete with Nagato. His fight with Naruto a good(and only) example of his strength. While we could debate the specifics of the fight, I think its fair to say that in theory, Pain probably does not have a bad match up when it comes to fighting a character one on one: I say this because Naruto had a ton of help when he fought pain. Specifically there were three large scale summons, plus two Sages. Additionally, Naruto would not of triggered into the tailed beast mode had Hinata not interfered in the fight. Nagato had to be defeated in order for him for the story to advance. In a vacuum, he probably has a positive match up versus Naruto.

Majin is spot on in that he left the series is a pretty terrible way. Additionally, his resurrection technique is the definition of a Deus ex Machina. I give these points more leeway only because his demise was necessary to move the series along. I think Nagato's conversion will be used as the ground work for Naruto's attempt to redeem Sasuke.

I could give him a nine because there isn't a good justification for the resurrection technique, but whatever. I blame that on the writing and plot more so than the character as a whole. I will also tend to evaluate Nagato more in a vacuum because if I'm going to knock him for things that happened in the story, I think its probably better to grade the arc as opposed to blame it on a character (he's just the mechanism for a terrible plot).