The Shrine

Holy shit! First that awesome battle with green pants, and then the surprise ending!

What cha talkin about? Kiba noticed them a while ago, your awareness was at 0. ;p

Ahh. So they finally show up this episode? I havent gotten to download it yet. Can't wait to get home now ^_^

Eric wrote:What cha talkin about? Kiba noticed them a while ago, your awareness was at 0. ;p

I think he noticed somebody, but didn't know who. I'll have to check out the previous episodes. Was that 123 or 122?

Yeah, that fight was fucking sweet as HELL (and I've come to expect nothing less from Konoha's Beautiful Green Beast)

sine: 123, it was

He notices them, but never mentions them by name.

Yeah, there was no way to know. Unless you're a genius, or you're an ass who knew what was coming already like Eric ;)

Or me! I read the manga as well.

Yes...I am smart ;p

I loved the Drunken fighting thing Rock Lee did (that will only expand the rabid fan base he has) but I'm a little lukewarm on the Sand team helping. There had better be a good explanation for it. "We're now allies" just ain't good enough and pussifies Gaara to no end. I was SOOO looking forward to Naruto or Rock Lee taking him on again. And all that time they spent vilifying him is wasted....and what a great villian he was. Two of the top 4 or 5 fights in the whole series were because of that guy (one with Rock, other with Naruto). Hell, he's the reason Rock's even as popular as he is.

There had better be a kick-ass explanation for this one. First minor blunder I've seen in the series. Took 124 eps, that's pretty impressive

If you remember, Tsunade mentions that she has already taken measures.

Um, yeah, that fixes it......NOT. C'mon, a REAL explanation to make the second biggest villian in the series into an ally. This isn't the WWF (no Seek, I'll NEVER called it the WWE), a simple "he's our friend now" ain't good enough

The Sand and Konoha were always allies. The thing that broke it was the deception of Orochimaru. So with his deception laid bare, the Sand basicly apologized and resumed their allience with the Leaf. Tsunade knew that probally the 5 of them wouldn't be enough so she contacted the Sand Village and hired the 3 of them to come help. And yes from this point on, Garra, Temari, and Kankuro are allies.

They spent what, 10 episodes telling us "Gaara has to kill to live, he's evil, he can't help but be evil, there's nothing anyone can do about it....nor anything he can do about it". That's what made the Naruto-Gaara fight so damned good, the buildup. Now he's the saviour? The old Gaara woulda just killed both of them (Rock Lee and bone-boy).

I hope to hell that's not the explanation. Even the WWF woulda at least tried

Garra does not have it easy against Kimimaru.

Again, the 3 fo them aren't exactly happy about helping out here, but its a mission.

You're really forgetting some important details, Zeus. Gaara basically left Kohona a changed person after his fight with Naruto. He sensed Naruto's dark side and realized that there were other directions to go other than the one he was following. I think that was all Gaara needed, as he felt trapped into the current path he was at. It even seemed like the guy was remorseful after the battle and fucking apologized to his team. This caught them so offguard, as it seemed like completely unknown feelings for Gaara. Go ahead and rewatch those parts of ep 80 again.

I'm sure he's still emotionally scarred and unstable, and the teamup with him and Rock Lee was intentional. It will be interesting how his transformation from a villian to a good guy will be, but I guess we'll have to wait for the next few episodes. Besides, villians-turned-heros are my favorite type of characters. They bring a balance and inner conflict that is rarely seen elsewhere. Though I don't like Naruto's constant good guy motif, his rare moments of inner conflict are more human and enjoyable.

Now, about Rock Lee's battle itself, did anybody else notice that he seemed to be using Drunken Fist for defense and Dragon style for offense? Despite his name, Rock Lee doesn't seem to mimic Bruce Lee's movements and style often. He had that one kick-walking move that was all Drunken, but most of it was Dragon style, which fits with the loose and fluid movements of Drunken.

Hey, I'm not giving up on the show or anything, I'm just sayin', they'd better make it worth my while here to turn the second best villian IMO to a good guy. I'm still going to eagerly download them weekly (until Toonami takes them all down), I was just a little disappointed it happened without some big battles first.

Zeus wrote:Hey, I'm not giving up on the show or anything, I'm just sayin', they'd better make it worth my while here to turn the second best villian IMO to a good guy. I'm still going to eagerly download them weekly (until Toonami takes them all down), I was just a little disappointed it happened without some big battles first.

Again, it DID happen after a big battle in ep. 80 (and all of the shit leading up to that). Anyway, we're just speculacing what will happen, since we don't even know what Gaara's personality is going to be like until next episode.

Except for those of us who read the manga, and thus already know ^_^

Garra & Naruto are identical in their upbringing, just that Garra's powers took more lives "protecting" him, Naruto never outwardly had that problem.

That was more or less what I was tryign to say but I wasnt getting it across right.

SineSwiper wrote:

Zeus wrote:Hey, I'm not giving up on the show or anything, I'm just sayin', they'd better make it worth my while here to turn the second best villian IMO to a good guy. I'm still going to eagerly download them weekly (until Toonami takes them all down), I was just a little disappointed it happened without some big battles first.

Again, it DID happen after a big battle in ep. 80 (and all of the shit leading up to that). Anyway, we're just speculacing what will happen, since we don't even know what Gaara's personality is going to be like until next episode.

Sorry, forgot the word "more" between "some" and "big"