I've read over most of the the thread and the OP now so i'll be talking about the points you made Damage
1.
"Currently base Naruto has no justification for his Massively Hypersonic+ speed rating."
1. Via the scaling in place he should realistically be Rel+ as he can scale off Kakashi who scales off Kabuto who scales off Tsunade who is Rel+
2.
"Kakashi is rated as Massively Hypersonic+ for a speed calc of his, but his justification also mentions him keeping up with Pai who is Relativistic for being comparable to Kisame."
2. You're right Kakashi should be upgraded
3. "
Kabuto ,
Deidara,
Sasuke,
Danzo,
Tente,
Sai Yamanaka,
Hanzō,
Menma Uzumaki all simply need to be upgraded, i don't understand the point in even bringing these up considering your overall point
4. "
One of the main issues for me is that the statement does not appear to have any solid support from the original manga itself. There is no mention or implication of the Raikage or Killer B having feats of speed at Relativistic+ levels."
4. There's absolutely no difference between us getting a statement of how a jutsu works between the manga and databook, yes the databook has hyperboles but so does the manga, does this mean we throw the manga out too? Kishimoto makes it very clear at the start of all his databooks that the databooks are explanations of how Jutsu works, if a jutsu is stated to be near SOL in the manga it's the exact same as in the manga, if Madara says he can destroy a universe in the manga it's the exact same as a hyperbole in the databook, people don't seem to understand that
5. "
Yes, the Raikage are commonly known to be "super fast" guys going by Naruto's observation but the Lariat technique being 51% Lightspeed would make it around two hundred times faster than Kakashi's feat of just managing to intercept Kakauzu's attack which is assumed to be average lightning speed."
5. Which doesn't matter at all, lower feats don't debunk higher feats, this is the equivalent of me saying DBZ characters are slower than light because they have feats that are less than light speed later on....that's not how it works at all, we always use their highest feats to scale them from
6.
"It is a huge gap of speed in the verse. Which is what leads me to think that it is an outlier; especially since it has been used to retroactively scale so many characters in the verse to Relativistic or Relativistic+ levels."
6. No it isn't, what's huge about it? It's only around 2-3 tiers difference, and the number is only 200, if a verse has multiple 1x FTL feats and a 200x FTL feat is the 200x FTL feat seen as an outlier? No it isn't, we've had higher gaps than "200x difference" that have been acce[pted here, and you're ignoring the support that Rel has within the verse
7.
"At least part of that databook entry is exaggerated anyway, since it claims that the opponent can't even activate a technique before getting hit, yet Sasuke was able to put Killer B under Genjutsu while Killer B was performing the Lariat."
7. Complete pointless point to make for anyone who knows how to debate and is aware of what Fallacy by association means, not even going to waste my time on this
8.
"There is only one calc in the verse that comes close to the statement and it is Madara's reaction feat to the Ethereal Transmission jutsu which some people consider to be an ambiguous feat. Some people have pushed hard for this calc to be accepted in order to support the databook statement and make the databook statement appear like less of an outlier."
8. Damage it's not an outlier at all, i don't think you know what an outlier is from your words so i'll describe it for you and break down the entire thing
firstly the definition of an outlier
"a fact, figure, piece of data, etc. that is very different from all the others in a set and does not seem to fit the same patter:"
What do we have that disproves Lariat being near LS? People simply saying that they can't believe it, or the manga never stating it despite that being the entire point of the existence of the databooks, to fill in for areas where the manga never bothered to expand on
There's absolutely nothing contradicting Lariat's speed, let's get that out the way first, whereas we have a statement from the databooks telling us Lariat's speed.
As for it being very different from all the other feats
Light speed is a constant in Naruto, regardless of it being an outlier early on (Hell we had LS characters in the first arc of Naruto albeit it being an outlier for anyone reacting to) or it not scaling to a characters movement or reaction speed (Light Fang/Ethereal transmission), it's obvious that Kishimoto is constantly attempting to prove that Light speed isn't a problem within the Narutoverse, hell he literally showed us multiple times characters reacting to light speed attacks (Edo Madara, SOSP Naruto) even after he told us they were lightspeed, so to say that something that is "Near LS" in a verse full of light speed abilities is asinine.
9.
"But aside from that Naruto Shippuden currently has half a few MHS+ calcs which could be used for scaling instead.
I think we should either dismiss the statement and examine what the speed scaling would be like with the Madara reaction feat alone, or get rid of both of them and rate the verse appropriately using the other calcs available."
9. I'm not sure whether you did this intentionally or not but this is genuienly a terrible way of debating, your choice of words literally makes this a loaded question but i'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assumed you didn't do this intentionally, for the record saying "MY WAY IS APPROPRIATE!!" is a horrible way of setting up an argument, you're literally insinuating that any other way to do it isn't the appropriate way
Why should we have to dismiss the statement when we have multiple feats for support of the cast being that fast?
1. Edo Madara reacting to LS attacks
2. SOSP Naruto reacting to an LS attack
3. Guy Approaching the speed of light in 8th gate
4. Lariat is Near Light speed
5. Madara is able to shoot attacks at the speed of light
6. Even fodder characters have no problems moving things at the speed of light
It's apparently ok to scale the entire 200 pokemon Rel+ characters off Solar beam but not ok to scale Naruto characters to Rel+ off MULTIPLE feats and in a verse where it's been proven time and time again that SOL isn't a problematic speed and the author intended for them to reach those speeds very early on albeit changing his mind through the chunin exams.
10.
"Just because the statement exists in the databook does not mean we have to be forced to use it to rate the profiles, we take the databooks on case-by-case basis anyway.
Whether you agree with using the statement or not; there are a lot of issues with speed ratings as I pointed out above."
10. Yes it is a case by case basis and it's entirelly based on if YOU can prove it is a hyperbole
Which you've failed to do, all you've done is cast doubt on something and assumed that that alone completely debunks said thing, Can you provide anything in the anime, manga or databooks that states or implies that Lariat is slower than those speeds?
No, so i think it's ridicilous to take your doubt of something over the authors actual words on the ability.
Now i'll reference some of the comments in here
1. "Impossible to dodge" shouldn't be taken seariously,what do you expect?For Sasuke not to dodge the Lariat and die?Or for Naruto not to dodge light fang and die?Thats the description to hype the jutsu.
Yet "Nearly the speed of light" is meant to be taken at face value?
1. It's hard to understand how this is a genuine point someone is making
Hyperbole: "exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally."
How do we know "Impossible to dodge" is a hyperbole? Because it was dodged
How do we know Lariat isn't a hyperbole? Because it's never been contradicted, by anything, at all, it's not like someone has come out and said "Lariat isn't Nearly SOL!", i don't see why it's so hard to distinguish between an obvious hyperbole and something that isn't, but i can't expect much considering this wiki didn't even accept the naruto databook for like 3 years based on that same reasoning
Most of the counter arguments are "Well if Lariat is Near LS then why are characters acting like Slower attacks are impressive!!"
Naruto is NOT the first nor the last series to do this, there are tons of series that have this and to only call out Naruto for it and act like it's a debunk would be completely hypocritical
I mean we have Saint seiya characters with Septillions x FTL ratings that think SOL is an insane speed early on in Saint seiya, is Candice from Bleach only building level because she thinks gigajoules of energy is an impressive attack and enough to turn a relevant bleach character to ashes? I suppose we should downgrade anyone below/Around candice to 8-B and all gold saints to Light speed because Leo said SOL was an insane speed and was shocked at someone possibly going FTL, i can name so many other series that do this, it's simply an inconsistency with Kirin, i mean it doesn't even make sense considering we've had lightning timers since Kakashi was a kid, it's just another dumb villain bragging about how strong and fast he is and how the hero has no chance only for the hero to pull out a secret ability that proves the Hero wrong
This took me long to type out so i'm done for now, i'll still be here to answer anything else but besides that i'm out