1) In fairness, it is possible that 'Mr. Evil'* has an ability to do deep mental work on a susceptible subject without being very noticable. Sasuke ending up a broken tool would also fit the whole 'human cost of the ninja system' theme of the series. It is clear that he is not a rational actor, and a lot of the stuff involving him seems pretty useless. Maybe he is just a MacGuffin at the moment. I'm holding off judgement until the manga finishes, or at least the current plot arc ends. Maybe I am excessively charitable.
2) I quit Star Wars after buying the SW III novel and soundtrack, after reading the novel, before watching the movie or listening to the soundtrack for entirely different reasons, but I see where you are coming from.
3) Do not have enough data to judge.
My suggestion would be Light/Kira from DeathNote. I hate him, and think the author cheats in his favor. To expand on this, I think that someone who genuinely was able to pull off the schemes he did (justified in story by his supposed genius), would be able to see the flaws in his methodology that I could. Or at least some of them, others were more dependent on my knowledge of how other parts of the world are very different from Japan and Tokyo, and of the cussedness of Americans. Then they string out the whole series around tracking him down, which shouldn't have taken as long because he was a crazy idiot.
no subject
2) I quit Star Wars after buying the SW III novel and soundtrack, after reading the novel, before watching the movie or listening to the soundtrack for entirely different reasons, but I see where you are coming from.
3) Do not have enough data to judge.
My suggestion would be Light/Kira from DeathNote. I hate him, and think the author cheats in his favor. To expand on this, I think that someone who genuinely was able to pull off the schemes he did (justified in story by his supposed genius), would be able to see the flaws in his methodology that I could. Or at least some of them, others were more dependent on my knowledge of how other parts of the world are very different from Japan and Tokyo, and of the cussedness of Americans. Then they string out the whole series around tracking him down, which shouldn't have taken as long because he was a crazy idiot.
*I'm grabbing this for a fic.