Why do fans love Jiraiya so intensely?

He's the character who earns everything. He's introduced as comic relief — the peeping pervert Sage, fumbling and embarrassing. Over time, his depth becomes apparent: the losses he carries, the hope he maintains despite them, the genuine brilliance under the persona. The joke becomes the character you most cared about. That inversion is one of the most effective character arcs in anime.

How does he compare to other Naruto mentors?

Kakashi is more precise and more emotionally controlled. Minato is more perfect. Tsunade is harder and more protective. Jiraiya is uniquely flawed in ways that make him humanly recognizable — he fails, drinks, peeps, procrastinates, and also writes about hope with absolute sincerity. The contradiction is the character.

What is Jiraiya's specific emotional impact?

He makes you believe the story. When he says Naruto will change the world, you believe it — partly because Jiraiya believes it so completely, partly because he's been wrong before and keeps believing anyway. His faith isn't naivete; it's a choice maintained despite evidence. That's harder than certainty.

What makes his death so much more devastating than other character deaths in Naruto?

Because he was the character who seemed like he'd always be there. Comic relief characters feel immortal. The show spent so much time making him a joke that his death felt genuinely unjust. And then the message encoded in the toad's back — his last act was protecting Naruto tactically. You don't recover from that.

What does Jiraiya ultimately represent?

Hope that doesn't ask for proof first. He believed in Naruto before the evidence supported it. He believed in his novel before anyone read it with appreciation. He believed in the possibility of peace in a world that kept demonstrating otherwise. That specific hope, maintained against evidence, is the most human and most moving thing about him.