>>90014985I remember when Orochimaru was this seemingly invincible villain that worfed Kakashi and Anko, and managed to kill the Third Hokage, and then when the Akatsuki showed up, it was this big thing because Orochimaru was scared shitless of them, and that Itachi was this boogeyman that everyone took super seriously. I honestly think that, with a few exceptions, Shippuden was a major downgrade, because Part 1 made me really feel like the bad guys were these big, terrifying forces of nature without them even having to do much.
Pain Invasion Arc was pretty awesome though. Having this one (okay, technically six) guy fight the entire village and win was amazing, and then Naruto returning after Pain nuked the village to avenge everyone was just amazing, especially since Pain had seemingly killed Kakashi and a shit ton of other people.
