What's going on guys today we're going to be talking about Naruto and Honkai Impact 3rd once again and as you guys can tell by the title it's about Sasuke Uchiha and Raiden Mei.

Out of all Naruto and Honkai Impact 3rd comparisons I've seen, Sasuke and Mei is the one that stands out to me the most. When playing Honkai Impact 3rd for the first time I realized that Mei is literally a female video game version of Sasuke. Not only did Mei give Hiei an absolute run for his money on being a much better MU for Sasuke having better connections and potential doesn't matter if Sasuke was inspired off of Hiei it's completely irrelevant Mei is more of a match for Sasuke than Hiei ever will be which is why I'm so glad I did this in my Mario, Sonic, Mega Man Death Battle. Anyways that aside Sasuke and Mei are similar in almost every way. Both of them are deuteragonists with incredible sword skills with lightning as their primary weapon who started off as young happy and optimistic kids from powerful families and are close with family members until an incident caused them to awaken dark powers thanks to the actions of selfish villains making their family members out to be the bad guys when in reality they are not this also led them to become survivors of massacres weather it'd be the Uchiha Clan Massacure of the Third Eruption and would be ostracized by society until they met and form a bond with an energetic protagonist surviving as hosts to monsters/deities Naruto and Kiana and have a relationship with a third person Sakura and Bronya, and become part of a trio squad lead by lad back mentors but would ultimately turn to the dark side after falling inferior to the protagonists which lead them being insecure to the point when the villains show up to offer them a chance to achieve their goals they accepted it without hesitation which ultimately leads to a fight between them and the people who they had a special bond with and ultimately defeating then and left to join the villains as well as the terrorist villain organizations with other partners weather it'd be Suigetsu, Jugo, and Karin for Sasuke or Raven for Mei, and eventually they leave said villain organizations and reunite with the protagonist, gain new godlike powers after a chance encounter with godlike beings, fight the villain and save the world, reconcile their relationship with said protagonists and years later into adulthood they train a new protagonists and ultimately fight aliens invading earth, like the Otsutsuki clan and the Sky People. There's so much similarities between Sasuke and Mei I barely scratched the surface that being said they are both opposites in their goals and their relationships with the protagonists like Sasuke wanting to kill Naruto to several all bonds to achieve his goals while Mei betrayed Kiana in an effort to save her nonetheless it shows how strong their bonds are with them and in today's discussion we're going to be looking at what makes Sasuke and Mei great characters so without further ado let's get started.

Tragic backstories and motivations

Firstly the thing that makes Sasuke and Mei great is they have compelling and tragic backstories as well as their motivation. When looking at most stories, character backstories are usually there to give us some insight on who the characters are before the present day, how the came to be, and what is the source of the motivation. Starting off with Sasuke, he was the second born child to the head of the Uchiha clan and for the most part he was a kind happy child he has a loving family despite how harsh his father Fugaku is he still loves him and most of all he has a special relationship with his older brother Itachi. Itachi may not be the best brother as he's always away on missions and doing other stuff but that doesn't matter because in Sasuke's eyes, Itachi was a hero a perfect older brother. Unfortunately fate forced him on a path he never expected on the night he returned home Sasuke saw all of the Uchiha clan members and worst of all he saw his mother and father dead and standing over their bodies was the same person he looked up to: Itachi. Sasuke was so young at the time he couldn't understand why Itachi did what he did and when Itachi gave Sasuke an answer he revealed that the older brother Sasuke knew was not only a lie but he seemingly never existed in the first place before leaving Sasuke shocked alone. In the aftermath of the Uchiha massacre, Sasuke was changed forever now he has a goal: Kill his older brother Itachi and avenge their parents and their clan. As you guys can see here the little boy that was always happy was now gone forever and in his place stood an Avenger. Eventually as we all know Sasuke did succeed in defeating Itachi and avenging the Uchiha clan all is well Sasuke got his revenge he got the proper closure he needed and can finally rest knowing that the man who caused him so much trauma was finally gone forever. Unfortunately life once again put Sasuke down an even dark path even more unexpectedly than normal. When Obito revealed the full story behind Itachi slaughtering the Uchiha clan how it was the elders in particular Danzo Shimura who ordered the death of the Uchiha clan whom they blamed for the Nine Tails attack on Konoha all because one Uchiha caused the attack that Uchiha being Obito himself, how the Uchiha had suffered many mistreatment and were feared by the village after Madara Uchiha left the village and fought the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju so much so that the Uchiha plot a rebellion to overthrow Konoha, and how Itachi suffered being a double agent and how Danzo was able to convince Itachi to slaughter his clan while threatening Sasuke's life. Now Sasuke sees that the evil older brother that was Itachi was in reality truly was the hero Sasuke knew him to be and knowing that Itachi suffered so much until his death we see how this caused Sasuke to be pushed to the breaking point. Know his new goal is to avenge Itachi by killing Danzo and destroy all of Konoha, now we see how all the closure that Sasuke worked so hard to get was instantly shattered and in it's place are the flames of an even darker hatred. Now as you guys can see in the process he's willing to kill innocent lives who did nothing wrong to achieve his goal but in all honesty Sasuke doesn't care and putting myself in Sasuke's shoes I can see why he wouldn't care because there are many Uchiha especially children who are completely innocent who did nothing wrong there are Uchiha like Sasuke's mother, Mikoto and Itachi's girlfriend, Izumi who had no involvement in Madara's deflection and betrayal, Obito's attack on the village, and the Uchiha coup yet despite that their getting punished for something a few Uchiha did because in the eyes of Danzo and the other villagers if one Uchiha acts up all of them deserve to pay regardless if their innocent or not. Yes there are people in Konoha who are innocent and who did nothing wrong and had no involvement in the Uchiha's mistreatment, to the Uchiha massacre, and Itachi's death but he doesn't care because there are many innocent Uchiha too yet nobody showed them mercy so why should Sasuke show mercy to the innocent Konoha ninja? If you think about it Sasuke is essentially pulling a Uno Reverse card and a Karma's a bitch type situation because Sasuke is going to make sure that the entire village suffers the same way the Uchiha did innocent or not and while yes you can say that he has every opportunity to spare them but I can apply the same argument to the other villagers like them setting a better example than Danzo and doing so could prevent the rebellion but because they didn't there was no need for him to spare them if the villagers couldn't even spare the innocent Uchiha that's the cycle of hatred at play. Kishimoto did a very good job making Sasuke's goals have this Uno reverse card situation showing how it's Karma for what Konoha did to the Uchiha and thankfully he did managed to defeat Danzo. But it wasn't until after reuniting with a revived Itachi that Sasuke wanted to understand why Itachi would go so far as to protect the village despite said village being the one to cause him so much suffering and after hearing the ways of shinobi it was at this point that Sasuke finally understood and now has a new goal: To cause revolution. He still wants to destroy Konoha but he's not it out of vengeance he wants to destroy but then he wants to rebuild to create a world where he completely destroys the shinobi system and be the one and only darkness the world faces to ensure another Itachi never happens again and once again putting myself in Sasuke's shoes I can understand in fact I actually don't really mind this idea that much because this was the same shinobi system that caused the Uchiha clan to suffering it was this shinobi system that proved that Madara was right and as such caused him to act which lead to the current events, it was this shinobi system that put Sasuke on the path of hatred and took Itachi's life and he knew that if this same system continues to thrive in the future what happened to the Uchiha clan could indeed happen again that's why he needs to kill all the Five Kage, the Tailed Beasts, and destroy every shred of the shinobi system and I don't blame him because apart from Tsunade and Gaara I would not feel bad for the Five Kage when they died it was their corruption that lead to the current events of the world, it's the same political governments that have these agendas and in the words of Captain America in Civil War agendas change and most of the time when do change it leads to utter disasters. If someone had the same goals of killing world leaders as well as the entire system I would not feel bad for the many cops, soldiers, lawyers, attorneys, prosecutors, judges, or world leaders that end up dying or getting killed if anything I would either laugh or just not acknowledge them as human beings aside from the few that actually proved that they are not corrupted and have proven to be true heroes and great humans, because it was those same systems that lead to the world being on the brink of chaos and as such they needed to be disposed of which is what Sasuke is trying to do here. We may not agree with Sasuke's actions but we understand where he's coming from that's why when Sasuke is eventually redeemed it adds a lot of meaning behind it. Next up we have Mei. Mei was originally born into the power Raiden family and was an heiress because her father Ryoma is the CEO of the Massive Electric Corp. She lived a normal life for the most but sure her mother passed away due to natural causes but aside from that though, Mei's doing reasonably fine, she is greeted by her butlers, she goes to a school that allows students who come from wealthy, powerful, and rich families she is popular amongst the students and teachers known for her personality, her intelligence, her natural beauty, and her cooking skills and even earned the nickname Queen of Thunder and despite always being away Ryoma was truly a caring father to Mei. Unfortunately life took an unexpected turn on Mei's life, Ryoma was arrested for fraud of the company and it seemed like Ryoma was guilty. In reality Cocolia framed him to get him arrested so she can take over the ME Corp and gain access to the Gem of Conquest that was in Mei's body that was placed there by her father to protect her from the very same illness that killed her mother. Nevertheless the incident forever stained the Raiden family name so much so that Mei was completely ostracized by the students and teachers at her school which resulted in Mei getting bullied completely. As we can see here Mei's life turned completely left and as a result she realized that the only reason why people liked her was because of her family privileges and now that those have been destroyed she has nothing and was forced to live a life of loneliness, then later on the Herrscher persona that's inside Mei started giving her deep voices and feeding her negative thoughts and promised her vengeance against those who harmed. Consumed by loneliness, sadness, and anger, Mei awakened as a Herrscher and as a result she killed all her classmates and teachers as payback and started the Third Honkai Eruption. So when looking into Mei's mind despite all the privileged she has deep down all she wanted was for someone to see her for who she truly is and it wasn't until Kiana Kaslana who goes to the same school as her shows up to stop her and then when Mei turns back to normal she attempts to commit suicide guilt ridden by what she has done but Kiana saves her and became the very first person to ever truly be Mei's friend. She eventually became a Valkyrie and was having a happy time, unfortunately tragedy struck again when she's forced to watch her friends sacrifice themselves for her Bronya, Theresa, Himeko, Fu Hua, and most of all Kiana. When Kiana went missing for months, disarmed a bomb to save a city, and did not care if she had 2 months left to live, Mei was completely insecure as the one person who saved her years ago was on the blink of being gone forever, Mei for months was struggling all she could even think about is weather or not she's stronger to save Kiana it was too much for her heart to handle so when Kevin used this opportunity to manipulate Mei into joining World Serpent, she did not care she accepted if it meant Kiana is saved and if it meant betraying her friends. But as time goes on however she began to slowly but surely regret her actions as to Mei, Kiana was her one and only pillar of support. Mei's actions of wanting to save Kiana while noble at the same time it makes her look selfish as she was essentially restraining Kiana not realizing the fact that she has no control over Kiana no matter how hard she tries but I think the biggest moment for her is with the Elysia and Flamechasers they showed her how to be independent they showed her how to not rely solely on one pillar of support they taught her how to grow and surrender herself with others and most importantly they taught her how to let go and that's why when she reunited with Kiana she learned to let go of her basic obsession over Kiana and to respect her decisions form now on. When looking at Sasuke and Mei both of them truly did start out happily but unfortunately their worlds turned completely upside down and hand goals that led them to betraying their friends but eventually in the end they learned from their mistakes and from now on as they walk on the path of redemption they used the lessons they have learned and passed down the torch of heroism to the next generation.

Formidable monsters

The second thing that makes Sasuke and Mei so great is that apart from being understandable they are also very formidable. When we take a look at Sasuke he has many moments of formidable albeit not many in Part 1 but still formidable such as the end of Part 1 where he battles Naruto at the Final Valley and wins but Part 2 is where things get interesting sure he has cool moments such as violating Team 7 and launching Kirin on Itachi all of those are cool but I think the best example of Sasuke's formidable is in the Five Kage Summit arc which in that arc Sasuke is the central character despite the show obviously being called Naruto. After Sasuke learns the truth about Itachi, we see a drastic change in Sasuke's character, he's killing samurai without breaking a sweat, he battles stronger foes like the Raikage despite the risk that me might lose, and he's sacrificing his partners such as Team Taka rather if it's leaving them to die or just flat out stabbing them just to get to the person he's killing. The reason why I find this interesting is because before despite being vengeful and wanting revenge on Itachi, Sasuke showed that he still has some form of heart and humanity left in him, he battles 1000 shinobi but he refuses to kill them, when he battles Team 7 to kill them it wasn't out of pure rage, when he's fighting much stronger foes like Deidara, Sasuke uses his brains to come up with a idea to win, and when his Teammates like Team Taka are in danger Sasuke tries to rescue them and keep them safe. Clearly those moments that despite being formidable Sasuke still in someways was in his character. But when we reach the Five Kage Summit, all of that is gone, now he's heartlessly killing people despite them not being the ones he wants to kill, when he's faced with strong opponents he doesn't strategize he just rushes in for the attack, and when his teammates are in danger he doesn't care he either leaves them to die or just flat out kills them like disposable pawns as you guys can see Sasuke at this point he doesn't care anymore because the only thing that matters is if he kills the man responsible for his and Itachi's suffering: Danzo. The reason why I like this change in Sasuke's character is because before he was willing to do what it takes to kill Itachi but he had a few exceptions but in the Kage arc this drastic change in the character makes him much more formidable as regardless if you're his friends or enemies it doesn't matter he will go through literally anyone. This just shows how determined he was in his quest for vengeance, either Sasuke kills Danzo and the kills all of Konoha to make them pay for what they did to Itachi and the Uchiha clan or he dies trying one or the other. This formidable also continues which leads to the fight with Danzo. Sasuke stares down Danzo which I thought was great and then when we go to the actual fight Sasuke continues to show his formidable to making Danzo pay for what he did by ensuring he never sees the light of day. Another example of his formidable look at the final fight where Sasuke now wants to become a martyr just like Itachi to ensure what happened to him and Itachi never happens again. He seals away the Tailed Beasts and uses them to form his stringent jutsu in his arsenal and even when he's out of chakra he refuses to give up it's clear that he makes his intentions clear to killing Naruto something we'll get into later but overall Sasuke is incredibly formidable rather he wins or loses his fights it just goes to show how far Sasuke is willing to go to achieve his goals. As for Mei it's almost quite similar, while she does have that much formidable in the earlier chapters it wasn't until Chapter 17 when things get interesting. After Mei accepts the offer of joining World Serpent to prevent Kiana from dying within the next 2 months Mei shows signs of how formidable she can be, she confronts her Herrscher persona telling her that she doesn't care what happens, she doesn't care that she is returning to the darkness and she especially doesn't care if she backstabs Kiana in the back if it means saving her and we once again see that formidable when she fully awakens into her Herrscher form and we saw that again when after Mei saves the city she battles Kiana on the same rooftop where Kiana became her first true friend and she's beating the shit out of the very sick Kiana showing her true determination to stop Kiana from sacrificing herself which is important for later, either way Mei's victory over Kiana shows that she's more than willing to do whatever it takes to stop the Honkai so Kiana doesn't have to. The problem is that I wish we could've seen more formidable sure in Chapters 18 and 19 she has to defeat the Herrscher of Ice before Kiana is alerted and gets involved which is bad blood for Mei considering at that time she had just recently gave her an ass whopping just to prevent her from getting in the way of Mei's goals of saving. I wish there was at least one or two moments in the game where we see more of Mei's formidable like what if at one point she is confronted by Anti-Entropy troops sent out to capture Mei which makes sense because at that point because she joined World Serpent, Mei is considered a terrorist and needed to be stopped lets say she fights a whole army of them because if she gets captured Kiana might never be saved so she slaughters all of them because they are in the way of achieving her objective like have Mei go full on sicko mode to prove through her determination and formidability that she will go through anything and anyone to save Kiana IDK I just want to see more villain Mei because the reason why Sasuke worked was because he showed us that he will achieve his goal and he won't let anyone stop him. Regardless they still do a great job of showing how formidable Sasuke and Mei are both of them started off as not so formidable but then when they reached their darkest places that were too much for their hearts to handle they realized that need to fall deep into darkness to gain the power they need to achieve their respective goals and they will use that darkness on anything and anyone who stands in their way even their closest friends and loved ones as they will not stop at nothing they have almost nothing to lose and as such if we don't give them everything we have to stop them now they won't be stopped at all.

Their relationships with Naruto and Kiana

Last but not less what makes Sasuke and Mei so great as deuteragonists is their relationships with the series main protagonist: Naruto and Kiana. Let's take a look at Naruto and Sasuke. These two have a bond like brothers due to having similar experiences of loneliness. Both of them are orphans due to losing parents in tragic circumstances and as a result are ostracized by society because of who they are. Naruto being the Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails the same Nine Tails that attacked the village on the day Naruto is born and Sasuke being an Uchiha Clan member the very same clan that was feared upon by many of the villagers and are blamed for the Nine Tails incident after an Uchiha used the Nine Tails to attack the village. Both of them understood each other which makes their rivalry between the two really great they buttheads occasionally but deep down they see each other as friends. The rivalry gets even more interesting is when Sasuke eventually becomes a villain. The reason behind all of this is that even though Sasuke was ahead of Naruto as time went on it became the opposite as Naruto grows stronger and stronger, all that combined with Itachi brutally beating Sasuke was enough for Sasuke to go rogue. We all know the iconic fight at the end of Part 1 where all stakes are high as Naruto and Sasuke fight hard to achieve their goals. Either Sasuke gets through Naruto to gain more power to kill Itachi or Naruto stops Sasuke from going any further one or the other. Of course as we all know Sasuke wins the fight yet despite his threats of killing Naruto he just leaves him alive and walks away showing that deep down even though he doesn't admit it he sees Naruto as a best friend and a brother. I really wish that in the Tenchi Bridge arc Kishimoto didn't have Sasuke try to kill Naruto because that pretty much ruins what was already established as Sasuke spared Naruto to let the audience know that deep down Sasuke truly can't cut ties with Naruto. If this was Sasuke with the Mangekyo Sharingan especially during the Five Kage Summit arc I would understand this more but I don't think it feels right to have Hebi Sasuke want to kill Naruto I feel like Sasuke should've just simply make threats to Naruto saying if he interferes he'll kill him while in reality he would be lying since he wouldn't go through for it. Nevertheless it still works because it shows Naruto going to extreme lengths to bring Sasuke back he's begging the Raikage not to kill Sasuke despite that realistically it make sense why the Raikage wants to kill Sasuke, he even tells Sasuke to throw all of his hatred back at him. So when we get to the final fight where Sasuke says that killing Naruto is necessary for the ninja world as part of his Hokage title it becomes truly epic to see how Sasuke is not fighting out of hatred but rather on what he thinks is right. Either Sasuke goes through Naruto to achieve his ultimate goal of destroying the corrupt shinobi system or Naruto stops Sasuke from going any further. And unlike last time Naruto manages to beat Sasuke helping him realize the error of his ways. But it doesn't end there as in the Boruto era rather it's through the novels or recent manga chapters we see Sasuke have conflicted feelings and how he's worried that if Naruto dies there would be no one left to save him from the darkness because Sasuke now sees Naruto as one of his pillars of support. Next up is Kiana and Mei. They have an obvious lesbian relationship literally ever since the day the first met we know that Kiana was defending Mei from bullied after Mei's father was arrested for a crime he didn't commit that was cool but it wasn't until after the Third Eruption that their relationship took to a whole another level when Mei was possessed by her Herrscher persona Kiana fought to save her and when Mei attempted suicide Kiana saved her and convinced her to live and it was at that point that they became the closest of friends and they both understood each other. Both of them are born Herrschers with dead mothers and fathers missing from their lives, both of them had to deal with Herrscher personas that can take over at any minute, and both of them are incredibly alone. Kiana and Mei's bond goes even further as Kiana develops romantic feelings for Mei so much so that she would outright confess her love for Mei thinking Mei has those same feelings, she gets angry when anyone else other than herself gets close to Mei, she often always wants to be with Mei and considers her the greatest partner she never has and is basically obsessed with Mei, normally people wouldn't take that but Mei doesn't mind Kiana being around her and expressing those feelings as long as she doesn't take it too far the reason is Kiana did save her life but another reason is because while it doesn't look that way on the surface Mei actually does love Kiana romantically but we never actually se that until after the events of the Battle against Schicksal and the Fourth Eruption when Kiana is ultimately separated from Mei and when they reunite Mei noticed that Kiana is not the same person she was prior, it became clear that Mei is worried about Kiana, she couldn't save her from Schicksal, she couldn't save her from Sirin, she couldn't save her from Durandal, I mean god damn she can't even save Kiana from herself when she throws that bomb into space. What's even worse is that Kiana didn't care if she had 2 months left to live and it was the last straw for Mei it became clear that she was in fact in love Kiana, it's clear that she misses the old days when Kiana used to annoy her unlike everyone else in Mei's life Bronya, Himeko, and Fu Hua, Kiana was Mei's one and only pillar of support it was the support that lifted her out of the darkness it was Kiana that loved her the way she is more than anything else so when she becomes a villain at that point she didn't care which leads us to Lament of the Fallen where they have their fight. Either Mei goes through Kiana to stop her from sacrificing herself or Kiana stops Mei from joining World Serpent one or the other. Years ago Kiana saved Mei from becoming a Herrscher but now Mei becomes a Herrscher to save Kiana. So when Mei ultimately defeats Kiana it cuts deep especially after hearing the words where Mei expresses her feelings for Kiana. "All I know is that the world means nothing to me without you!" Which is really intense. My problem is that I wish we could've seen more of them being on opposite sides more like why not have some requests that Mei be killed now that she's a member World Serpent and Mei had recently took down a bunco of authorities without breaking a sweat and Kiana pleads for Mei's life I also wish that the two actually fought each other again and this time Kiana defeats Mei and manages to bring her back to the light side. Nevertheless it still works because we saw how Kiana is willing to sacrifice herself for the world and how Mei is willing to sacrifice the world for Kiana. Then when the two ultimately reconcile their relationship it truly shows us how much they've grown we saw how from now on Mei will respect Kiana's decisions even if that meant Kiana would have to sacrifice herself and we saw how both of them eventually develop more pillars of support from their friends and allies. They do a great job with developing the Sasuke and Mei's bonds with Naruto and Kiana how they started off understanding each other before Sasuke and Mei eventually fall to darkness and walk down the path of the tyrant to achieve their ultimate goals by any means necessary and we saw how Naruto and Kiana are doing whatever it takes to bring them back to the light which eventually ends up happening and we saw them reconcile their relationships with them in the end. Which is why Sasuke and Mei are great deuteragonists.

Anyways guys that's all for today thank you so much for reading let me know in the comments below your opinions on Sasuke and Mei and I will see you all next time. Peace.