Quote Originally Posted by Uchiha Barles View Post
If mastering the demon is going to require mastery of anger, as a general emotion, I can accept that. It'd be nice to see Naruto as a zen master. But if it's 'darkness', as in the petty things, the secret things, the weaknesses that lead to evil, then it just seems to me like another breaking of an established fact in the Narutoverse. Naruto is genuine and good. TBH, that's always been kind of a bore, but to try and change that NOW requires far more than it looks like we're going to get.
I was trying to get at your first point: requiring a mastery of his anger. I think the Kyuubi will latch on to any negative emotion and cause it to grow into something uncontrollable. Indeed, way back when, "somebody" (in the manga) said that the Bijuu appear (as natural disasters) in places where hatred festers. I guess I am trying to retroactively defend Kishi, but maybe that's because Jinchuuriki who don't master their anger end up blowing up -- like Gaara basically did. Naruto had to deal with some shit over being the Konoha Jinchuuriki, and I guess Bee did too. Gaara got shafted.

On the other hand, I do understand where you're coming from. Why should Evil Naruto be anywhere near as strong as regular Naruto? He definitely has some things to be angry about, but they are not major forces in his life. It would be more "realistic" if Hinata had died, and Naruto still hated Pein for it, for example. Sam had some good points to this question though.

And to answer my own question (why should Evil Naruto be as strong as regular Naruto?)... maybe the Kyuubi has already influenced Naruto's negative emotions and magnified them. Maybe the lesson Naruto needs to learn is that he's had a pretty damn good life, all things considered. And that the Kyuubi is trying to blow shit out of proportion, just to take over him. Under this interpretation, the fight against Evil Naruto is figuratively a fight against the Kyuubi's influence.

On a similar topic: if you "merely" need to get rid of negative emotions to control the bijuu, then the Sage of the Six Paths was an awesome badass of goodness. And Madara will (presumably) be taken over by the Jyuubi very quickly. And I doubt the Jyuubi will want to make world peace through Sharingan hax.