It was a revenge fight and I don't think it was MEANT to be emotionally satisfying. Sasuke himself looked pretty numb about it all when he woke up in Madara's cave. It was pointless for Sasuke, because revenge is pointless.
I see your reasoning, but I see it differently, myself. There's a kind of catharsis that should come from a fight like that. After having sacrificed and abstained and done so much, the end of a great vengeance quest should bring catharis, even if the catharsis is death. Traditionally a literary character achieves his revenge and then, having no more purpose in life now that his enemy is gone, disappears from the story either through leaving or through dying. Of course, there's no reason a story has to follow that tradition, and in fact for Sasuke that would have been counter-productive, since Sasuke is at the beginning of his life, and his quest to kill Itachi was in its own way a quest to be free of obligation toward his family. But he should still have gotten some kind of catharsis from having his quest end. Instead, that fight now means nothing and the quest doesn't end, but in fact continues on in a warped form, that of Sasuke vs. Leaf.
In this, even Itachi's sacrifices for the village are made meaningless, because Sasuke got nothing from his fight with his brother except freedom from Orochimaru, which he didn't even earn himself, but was Itachi's doing. Sasuke's going to undo everything Itachi worked through.
If that's meant to be the tragedy of Sasuke's quest-- the tragedy that means he will never find an end to vengeance and in fact will turn from one quest to another because his heart is blackened by pain and misery and can never be free, that would be something. But I think that reasoning's too sophisticated for this plot. It looks to me like the mangaka just thinks it's one more way to keep Sasuke as a villain character until he and Naruto can continue to battle. Even though, for all intents and purposes, there's no longer any reason for Sasuke personally to hate Leaf. There's certainly enough reason never to return (to keep the Sharingan free from Leaf's control), but not enough reason for Sasuke to want to eradicate the village.
I understand that Sasuke believes the village ordered his family killed, and wants revenge for that, but it still doesn't seem like enough to me to want to help the Akatsuki and wipe out the village entirely. Why wouldn't Sasuke just go in and assassinate the council members? They're the guilty ones, not the entire village. And Sasuke until now has show only a desire to kill those people he believes are "guilty". Why should Sasuke need the Akatsuki? Why should he help them, when he's previously shown disagreement with their purpose?
I feel like there's a lot of inconsistencies in story and character here, and the only reason that it makes sense for Sasuke to join the Akatsuki at this point is because the mangaka wants to keep him involved as a villain. It's a plot device, despite the fact that it goes against Sasuke's character as we've seen it so far. That's why I thought it was stupid. Joining Orochimaru was foolish and risky but it was motivated by a certain cold logic. Doing this, not so much.
Unless we're to believe Sasuke's crazy now. I suppose taht would explain it.
More likely, though, 80 chapters from now Sasuke's going to "betray" the Akatsuki at the last minute, and say he was keeping them close to control them the whole time. That would be in line wiht the author's usual method.
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I see your reasoning, but I see it differently, myself. There's a kind of catharsis that should come from a fight like that. After having sacrificed and abstained and done so much, the end of a great vengeance quest should bring catharis, even if the catharsis is death. Traditionally a literary character achieves his revenge and then, having no more purpose in life now that his enemy is gone, disappears from the story either through leaving or through dying. Of course, there's no reason a story has to follow that tradition, and in fact for Sasuke that would have been counter-productive, since Sasuke is at the beginning of his life, and his quest to kill Itachi was in its own way a quest to be free of obligation toward his family. But he should still have gotten some kind of catharsis from having his quest end. Instead, that fight now means nothing and the quest doesn't end, but in fact continues on in a warped form, that of Sasuke vs. Leaf.
In this, even Itachi's sacrifices for the village are made meaningless, because Sasuke got nothing from his fight with his brother except freedom from Orochimaru, which he didn't even earn himself, but was Itachi's doing. Sasuke's going to undo everything Itachi worked through.
If that's meant to be the tragedy of Sasuke's quest-- the tragedy that means he will never find an end to vengeance and in fact will turn from one quest to another because his heart is blackened by pain and misery and can never be free, that would be something. But I think that reasoning's too sophisticated for this plot. It looks to me like the mangaka just thinks it's one more way to keep Sasuke as a villain character until he and Naruto can continue to battle. Even though, for all intents and purposes, there's no longer any reason for Sasuke personally to hate Leaf. There's certainly enough reason never to return (to keep the Sharingan free from Leaf's control), but not enough reason for Sasuke to want to eradicate the village.
I understand that Sasuke believes the village ordered his family killed, and wants revenge for that, but it still doesn't seem like enough to me to want to help the Akatsuki and wipe out the village entirely. Why wouldn't Sasuke just go in and assassinate the council members? They're the guilty ones, not the entire village. And Sasuke until now has show only a desire to kill those people he believes are "guilty". Why should Sasuke need the Akatsuki? Why should he help them, when he's previously shown disagreement with their purpose?
I feel like there's a lot of inconsistencies in story and character here, and the only reason that it makes sense for Sasuke to join the Akatsuki at this point is because the mangaka wants to keep him involved as a villain. It's a plot device, despite the fact that it goes against Sasuke's character as we've seen it so far. That's why I thought it was stupid. Joining Orochimaru was foolish and risky but it was motivated by a certain cold logic. Doing this, not so much.
Unless we're to believe Sasuke's crazy now. I suppose taht would explain it.
More likely, though, 80 chapters from now Sasuke's going to "betray" the Akatsuki at the last minute, and say he was keeping them close to control them the whole time. That would be in line wiht the author's usual method.