mokiepuppymaster
Torch the Archangel
SamaSenseiSenpai
Sakura holds no position in the story other than just being in love. Thank god for the manga, you can just skip through her whining. At least the other female ninja have personalities and interests outside of the generic female roles. Naruto's headband has more story depth than Sakura.
Agreed, though her sins go much farther than just being a two dimensional character. She is so utterly useless. In the entire series when has she ever done anything worthwhile? Very recently she punched Kaguya once, other than that she's been a healer, and while that is important her role could be filled by any generic faceless character. Now setting aside for the moment her healing role what are her highlight moments? Fighting the sound ninja in the Chunin exam, she had to be saved twice. She fought Sasori and won, but she only won when she let herself be manipulated like a puppet to let a more competent ninja use her strength. After the Kage summit she planned to kill Sasuke but she was in over her head and Naruto had to saver her again. Past that point she did nothing more than heal people. Sakura is not the most useless character in the series, but she certainly makes the list. She is two dimensional, she needed the role of a healer to give her any importance however the role didn't need her. What I mean by that is the story gained nothing by having Sakura as a member, it is important with or without her. Time and time again Sakura has proven that she is nothing but the token female in team 7.
1. Sakura has more of a role than being in love. Out of all of the female characters, Sakura has had more involvement in the plot. She's a member of Team 7, one of the new sannin, a top medical ninja (who knows skills that not even Shizune can do). She went from being a shy, timid girl, to trying to be popular and fit in with everyone else, to gaining the confidence to be her own person. She went from being incredibly book smart and running from a fight, to charging head first.
Sakura is able to be shown without bringing up love...while a character who has displayed themselves as being nothing more than a pairing fodder, is Hinata Hyuga. She's proven to be a bigger fangirl than Sakura and Ino combined, because her entire world revolves around Naruto.
2. During the Sasori fight, Chiyo even mentioned that there were times when Sakura moved on her own. So no, the fight wasn't because she was being manipulated as a puppet. You can't forget during that arc, Sakura also was able to create an antidote for Kankuro.
3. During the Pein arc she was evacuated villagers and was in charge of the medical staff, which is very important. She also defeated one of Pein's summons.
4. During the Kage Summit of course Sakura wasn't going to be able to kill Sasuke. I mean, could Hinata kill Pein? No. But the reason she couldn't kill him is the same reason Naruto can't kill him. Sasuke is a member of Team 7 and they dream of being able to restore what once was. Naruto saved Sakura because he wanted to, not because he had to.
The war arc proved that anything that anyone does can be done by anyone else. Look at all of the clans, there were filler characters mixed in with the mains, that didn't make anyone useless. Because all of the Hyugas were present, to do their jutsu didn't make Neji useless. Because Shikamaru, Ino and Choji are just like their fathers, didn't make them less useful.
When people are dying, medical ninjas are important. Sakura was able to summon the slug and heal a large number of people at once. She was able to unlock the seal so that physical injuries really don't affect her. She was able to transfer chakra to Obito so they could continue to jump through dimensions. You can't judge someone's usefulness based on Naruto. But coming from the fact that Sakura had nothing but her intelligence to start with, she's certainly come a long way. Compare her to any other female ninja and you'll see, she's certainly made a bigger impact.
Let me address your point in the order you presented them.
1. Sakura is featured more yes, but that is only because she's a part of Team 7 who are the main protagonists of the series. She is the pupil of a Sannin yes but given that she trained under the weakest member of that set it's no wonder that she's still behind Naruto and Sasuke. You say that her charging into a fight is a positive trait but I'd argue that it's foolishness and overconfidence in abilities that are lacking by comparison to the enemies being fought.
2. She occasionally moved on her own but by in large she allowed a better tactician to use her. This was one of her better judgement calls, when strategy is your weakness and you don't have the raw resources of Naruto that allow you to improvise your way past any opponent following the lead of a better strategist is the best strategy you can have. This still puts the victory more to Chiyo's skill than Sakura's, I do not mean to discount Sakura because this was her one greatest victory but we cannot ignore that Sakura would have lost if not for Chiyo.
3. She commanded the medical staff, super but it would have had the same impact with anyone there, even a brand new character that may or may not ever show up again. She beat one of pain's summons, again that's great but Konahamaru was able to beat a full path of pain, fricking Konahamaru!
4. Sakura was fully prepared to kill him but she lacked the ability and was incredibly foolish for thinking that for even a moment that she could. You are correct that Hinata was unable to beat Pein and I would list Hinata on the top ten most useless characters list alongside Sakura if not for one aspect of Hinata's character that you're overlooking. it's something I call "third party effectiveness" Hinata alone has done very little of merit throughout the series but there is one very important action of her's that we cannot overlook. When Neji died (spoiler alert) Naruto was crushed and Obito's words were getting to him. It was Hinata who put aside her own grief to help Naruto, and we cannot underestimate the difficulty or significance of that. I'm not sure if you have ever lost a loved one, I have. Seeing anything past that grief is damn near impossible Hinata managed that for Naruto's sake and pulled Naruto out of his grief to keep him fighting.
Your closing statements seem to imply that you misunderstood my previous closing statements. The medical Ninjas as a group gained nothing from having Sakura as a member. She is talented and she is strong by comparison to the average Ninja however her character flaws prevent her from being a truly useful asset. The single most important thing that Sakura has done in the past many chapters is keeping Naruto alive after the Nine-Tails was removed but again this is something that ANY medical ninja worth their salt should be able to do, and even that wouldn't have been possible without the Uzumaki clan's unnatural endurance. Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji were a valuable assets in the war because of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation that their fathers couldn't perform due to their different posts. Chouji alone broke through a barrier and was able to perform jutsus that no one else in his clan can without the assistance of drugs. Neji is the most talented Hyuga in a very long time and it is he who was outshining the others not the other way around. Sakura however rarely does anything that sets her apart from other medical ninja and even when she does it's so adorably pathetic compared to the feats that Naruto, Sasuke and even Kakashi manage.
So in closing Sakura's usefulness as a character compared to the other main characters is negligible at best, Sakura's combat abilities compared to her own squad are laughable. Sakura compared to side characters? she admittedly does stand above them but it would be ridiculous if she didn't. She had years off to study under one of the most talented ninjas of all time. When the side characters were doing missions and studying under Jounin she was working with the Hokage, and to make things fair we need to judge her on that curve. Who are the others to study under characters of that station or with power levels on par with a Kage? Naruto under Jiraiya, Sasuke under Orochimaru. Even looking at the students of the third and fourth hokages she doesn't compare. The only person to study under a kage and be more worthless is Shizune. The true problem is with Kishimoto, and how he writes his female characters. With a few exceptions they are all quite weak when compared with their male peers and Sakura is the one suffering the worst from Kishi's writing.
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