What Were My Crimes Again?

by Yemi Hikari - NF-OF (Yemi_Hikari)

Summary:

A series essays going into how that evil psychopath is an evil psychopath, but what other characters have done doesn't change that, nor is their being an evil psychopath justified.

Chapter 1: Introduction

There are specific individuals within the Naruto fandom who dislike others discussing how their favorite evil character is portrayed as a cruel psychopath, often deflecting in one of two main ways. One of these ways is to try to claim the actions were somehow justified when they actually weren’t, while the second of these ways is to try to bring up so-called evil things another character did.

More specifically, with the latter, I’m referring to how specific individuals within fandom claim that character A is being criticized for doing something that falls into the category of killing people, and point out that character B also kills people.

These fans have committed the logical fallacy known as False Equivalence. Still, more specifically, their logic is based on a very black and white view of killing that labels all forms of killing as morally corrupt, which is based on this false idea that we should all simply use our words to resolve conflict, even though any sane person knows you can’t talk-no-jutsu a psychopath out of thinking the way they do.

Of course, it doesn’t help that Naruto is able to talk-no-jutsu psychopaths down the path of peace while being a major hypocrite in the fact that he does in fact, utilize violence to achieve his ends, such as resolving things with Gaara through fists, and resolving things with Sasuke through fists, of which one could argue the former makes sense as Gaara at the time had a corrupt form of morality thanks to his upbringing. In contrast, the latter ultimately led Sasuke down the path he did.

So, should it be any surprise that these fans I’m talking bout commit the fallacy of logic called False Equivalence, or even to quoque, which translates to an “appeal to hypocrisy?” After all, Naruto preaches to himself about not killing people, about how killing people is an absolute moral wrong, despite having killed Yura, who ironically was pretending to be Itachi at the time.

You know, almost as if that moral high ground of not killing flew out the window when it came to bringing Sasuke home, because if Itachi were dead, then Sasuke would have absolutely no need to be seeking revenge anymore.

Of course, in examining this, I’ve also seen another problem with specific individuals in fandom, which comes from the opposite side of things, is over-pontificating about Sasuke’s so-called crimes, comparing him to the actual bad guys in the series, because—

Well, what did Sasuke actually do in comparison?

So, let’s go through a few of the characters, starting with a few of the ones whose actions are used to try to portray the evil dudes as not being that evil.

Chapter 2: The Good - Kage (In General)

Kage in General

- gave orders to protect their village during the time of war
- gave orders actually to protect the national security of their town
- utilized child soldiers and jinchuriki

I’m going to start with the first two, as these two fall under the black and white moralistic view that all forms of killing are morally wrong, which — gasp — means things like self-defense are out of the question!

I want to say that the people who argue for self-defense are limited to those who are ultra-pacifists. Still, some don’t have such a black and white way of thinking, who, if in their mind, there is a justification for a person committing the act of violence, believe that those committing self-defense are the ones in the moral wrong, and should just let themselves be victimized.

Without diving into some of the real-world craziness, let’s use the Uchiha clan as an example, an example I’ll be repeating later as the Uchiha clan falls under the category of individuals or groups often labeled as evil within fandom when they’re not, but effectively, because some people in fandom see the Uchiha clan as evil incarnate, that in turn means an entire clan being genocided was in fact justified and from there they would further argue that should any of the Uchiha defend themselves from this genocide, they would be in the moral wrong, not those committing the genocide.

This—

This isn’t real-world logic being used here, but this is also why the two arguments I mentioned at the beginning go hand in hand. It’s about officiating what is morally right and what isn’t, ultimately, and at times, ignoring context in favor of interpreting through a modern lens, or even an Americanized one.

At the end of the day, the leader of a group isn’t wrong for protecting those they are leading; however, they are misguided for implementing measures that compromise their group’s security. This, of course, means not going out and starting wars, or trying to establish insurmountable dominance over another village or nation, which I’ll get into more when I talk about Danzo.

This brings me to the child soldiers, which—

So, yes, from a modern lens and a modern cultural context, this is morally wrong.

But within the context of Naruto, it is not morally wrong, because we’re not talking about a modern society, at least not until the Baruto series rolls around. I’d argue that’s one of the sequel series' major problems in comparison to Naruto, in that the sequel series features a society that is heavily modernized, heavily Americanized — there’s a burger place for crying out loud, that child soldiers no longer make sense, yet they’re still producing them.

They’re still graduating at the age of twelve, instead of eighteen.

Yet, in this, in pointing out that Baruto should have shifted towards having an older graduation age, we see that in the Naruto series, as the adults started to understand better what being a child soldier did to children, the allowed for graduation age ended up changing, because Naruto’s generation wasn’t allowed to graduate early, otherwise we all know Sasuke would have.

What we see in Naruto is a society trying to shift away from a past where being a child soldier was the norm because nobody thought twice about mini-adults being on the battlefield, to moving away from this as the society has come to the advancement in psychology where they understand children aren’t just mini-adults and need a childhood of some kind, with some villages coming to this conclusion sooner than others.

So, to even bring up child soldiers as some moral wrong, the village Kage committed completely ignores the narrative and how we’re effectively dealing with a society where the view on child soldiers is shifting from being considered morally acceptable, while making reforms to the system that are much needed at the end of the day because of this shift in view.

As such, no. The fact that the kage used child soldiers doesn’t count, but it’s also essential to bring up because this is often used to excuse the crimes of others that I’ll get into when I get to certain characters, to justify why their stans think the rest of fandom should forgive them.

Chapter 3: The Good - Hatake Kakashi

Kage in General

- gave orders to protect their village during the time of war
- gave orders actually to protect the national security of their town
- utilized child soldiers and jinchuriki

I’m going to start with the first two, as these two fall under the black and white moralistic view that all forms of killing are morally wrong, which — gasp — means things like self-defense are out of the question!

I want to say that the people who argue for self-defense are limited to those who are ultra-pacifists. Still, some don’t have such a black and white way of thinking, who, if in their mind, there is a justification for a person committing the act of violence, believe that those committing self-defense are the ones in the moral wrong, and should just let themselves be victimized.

Without diving into some of the real-world craziness, let’s use the Uchiha clan as an example, an example I’ll be repeating later as the Uchiha clan falls under the category of individuals or groups often labeled as evil within fandom when they’re not, but effectively, because some people in fandom see the Uchiha clan as evil incarnted, that in turn means an entire clan being genocided was in fact justified and from there they would further argue that should any of the Uchiha defend themselves from this genocide, they would be in the moral wrong, not those committing the genocide.

This—

This isn’t real-world logic being used here, but this is also why the two arguments I mentioned at the beginning go hand in hand. It’s about officiating what is morally right and what isn’t, ultimately, and at times, ignoring context in favor of interpreting through a modern lens, or even an Americanized one.

At the end of the day, the leader of a group isn’t wrong for protecting those they are leading; however, they are misguided for implementing measures that compromise their group’s security. This, of course, means not going out and starting wars, or trying to establish insurmountable dominance over another village or nation, which I’ll get into more when I talk about Danzo.

This brings me to the child soldiers, which—

So, yes, from a modern lens and a modern cultural context, this is morally wrong.

But within the context of Naruto, it is not morally wrong, because we’re not talking about a modern society, at least not until the Baruto series rolls around. I’d argue that’s one of the sequel series' major problems in comparison to Naruto, in that the sequel series features a society that is heavily modernized, heavily Americanized — there’s a burger place for crying out loud, that child soldiers no longer make sense, yet they’re still producing them.

They’re still graduating at the age of twelve, instead of eighteen.

Yet, in this, in pointing out that Baruto should have shifted towards having an older graduation age, we see that in the Naruto series, as the adults started to understand better what being a child soldier did to children, the allowed for graduation age ended up changing, because Naruto’s generation wasn’t allowed to graduate early, otherwise we all know Sasuke would have.

What we see in Naruto is a society trying to shift away from a past where being a child soldier was the norm because nobody thought twice about mini-adults being on the battlefield, to moving away from this as the society has come to the advancement in psychology where they understand children aren’t just mini-adults and need a childhood of some kind, with some villages coming to this conclusion sooner than others.

So, to even bring up child soldiers as some moral wrong, the village Kage committed completely ignores the narrative and how we’re effectively dealing with a society where the view on child soldiers is shifting from being considered morally acceptable, while making reforms to the system that are much needed at the end of the day because of this shift in view.

As such, no. The fact that the kage used child soldiers doesn’t count, but it’s also essential to bring up because this is often used to excuse the crimes of others that I’ll get into when I get to certain characters, to justify why their stans think the rest of fandom should forgive them.

Chapter 4: The Good - Senju Hashirama

According to Madara stans, Senju Hashirama is a big meanie for going back on his word of letting Uchiha Madara be the next Hokage.

Which, uh—

That’s not actually true?

It’s more of Hashirama voiced wanting Uchiha Madara to be the next Hokage, and his brother pointing out that the people wouldn’t like that, to which Uchiha Madara effectively got pissed off that he wouldn’t become the next Hokage and went on a rampage and his multi-generational violence spree.

Which, I’ll get into more when I am actually talking about Madara and his brother (who isn’t evil, but wasn’t done justice by the narrative because Kishimoto had to treat Madara as being right all along.)

Because the idea that Hashirama went back on his word, of protecting the village with his life—

There is no canon evidence that he ever broke his promise, but who broke the promise of maintaining peace?

It was Madara all along.

Again, I really can’t go into details regarding this until I get to Madara, so this chapter regarding Hashirama is on the shorter side of things and is meant to point out merely that he did no wrong in the grand scheme of things despite what the two Uchiha brothers claimed to be true.

Chapter 5: The Good - Senju Tobirama

Of course, let’s talk about Senju Tobirama, another character often brought up in discussions about Uchiha Madara.

Now, what I’m going to say has nothing to do with stanning Tobirama. I honestly have little to no interest in his character or any of that eras characters, particularly with how much of a mess the narrative gets to be regarding the whole Senju/Uchiha conflict, which—

Ugh.

I’ll get into this more later, but the whole conflict can be summed up as Uchiah Madara getting pissed off and jealous because the Senju had to go back on their word of him being the next Hokage because that wasn’t what the people wanted, because screw what the people, including his own clan, wanted.

Basically, he threw a major tantrum that was major cringe.

Tobirama though—

He’s got more accusations thrown at him compared to his brother, but what he’s guilty of is—

- being the creator of a thousand jutsu
- establishing the Uchiha as the police force

Regarding the first one, Tobirama receives a lot of criticism for creating the Edo Tensei Jutsu.

Which, yeah, he did create it.

And it ultimately became a banned jutsu.

I think everyone ignores the fact that he’s likely the one who banned it, but what exactly is the story behind that?

Well, the question is, what was his intent from the very beginning? And did he suspect there to be a sacrifice? Canon never goes into the canon, but the question does arise: who did he try to bring back with the jutsu? Chances are, he definitely didn’t realize it would involve sacrificing the individual, thought it would only be a temporary way to communicate with the dead—

Which, I’m going to get into this a bit more after we discuss him making the Uchiha the police force, which is supposedly to keep the clan in check—

And cue the cringe.

This does not make sense in the context of Japanese culture and history, particularly when it comes to the actual police force in Japan, to use this as a form of punishment or a means to keep a clan in check, rather than as a way to reward a specific clan.

However, for those who are unfamiliar, the Japanese police force was established to uphold the samurai ideal and was founded by the former samurai class. Still, one way this is symbolized is by the adoption of the sakura flower as the official emblem of the Japanese police force, which was originally the symbol of the samurai class.

So when this idea that the Uchiha were made the police force in some way of keeping them in check, I was honestly floored, because I was baffled how this context that is so not Japanese ended up in the series, but this was before I learned Kishimoto admitted to being influenced by American films and—

The idea that police are inherently bad is a very American concept. This isn’t to say that there isn’t corruption of the police force outside of the United States, but other countries don’t have the kind of animosity towards the police and look down upon it as we do, but—

Boruto solidified this for me, because the modernization that occurs, and yes, Kishimoto can be blamed for this as he can approve stuff as early as the first movie, and at the end of the day, what I see is a Konoha decimated by Pain to make way for the new, better, modernized, and Westernized Konoha, and—

It makes me question the whole attitude towards the police and how it’s some way of keeping a clan in check, because instead, it shows a significant lack of understanding on Kishimoto’s part regarding the legacy of honor behind the establishment of the Japanese police force, how it is tied to the samurai, and wouldn’t be seen as an insult, shouldn’t have been.

But I think this is what feeds the misconception that Tobirama hated the Uchiha clan, when he outright says he doesn’t, that he has trust issues with everybody—

The reason to have a police force is that, at the end of the day, you can’t trust the civilian population to do the right thing, because not everybody is content with living in peace, which would be the reason for establishing the police force in Konoha. After all, Tobirama understood not to be naive and overly trusting like his older brother.

But who does he hand the reins of this over to?

To the clan he supposedly hates and doesn’t trust, which doesn’t make sense at all.

Until you understand that his issue was specifically with Madara, that Madara was the person he didn’t trust, and rightly so given Madara’s tantrum at not getting to bee the next Hokage because the people and his own clan weren’t having it.

Nor was Tobirama the one who isolated the Uchiha clan through the police force — that was Danzo.

But yeah, the police force as a form of marginalization? That’s one of the things revealed later about the Uchiha clan tht doesn’t make sense, because at the end of the day, it throws out the history of the police in Japan and ignores the fact the police force is going to be well respected and looked up to, so if it was a means to control—

It was a way of giving the Uchiha respect, particularly the respect of the people, respect Madara didn’t have, which in turn sounds more like a way of trying to turn out good from the clan, rather than bad apples like Madara.

To which, yes. Madara is a bad apple.

He threw a tantrum because the people didn’t want him. But there are also two lies within his narrative, conflicts so to speak.

One - that his younger brother said not to trust the Senju at is death.

Two - that his younger brother willingly gave him his eyes.

Which, the first is a lie, or at least this idea that the Senju could not be trusted, as both tried maintaining peace with their own lives. And Tobirama tried giving to the Uchiha the respect of the people.

So did Madara’s brother even say that, when at the end of the day the one going back on their word of peace was Madara all along?

Which—

Sadly, if the first isn’t true, why should we believe Madara when he says his brother willingly gave him his eyes at his death?

Funny how Tobirama is the one to have killed his brother, and—

Maybe there’s an actual good reason why Tobirama doesn’t trust Madara, and it specifically has to do with Madara’s younger brother? It’s odd, as I said, for Maadara’s brother to claim Madara shouldn’t trust the Senju, as this feels like a way of making Madara seem right in what he does, so his claiming this, us being told this, is questionable.

Which again, makes the claim regarding the eyes questionable, but both Senju brothers were there at the death of Madara’s brother and—

Seems like Tobirama is privy to Madara’s lie regarding the eyes, why the Uchiha clan themselves didn’t want him to be Hokage, would see this as a level of disrespect towards the dead, and a way of spitting in his own older brother’s face, as his own older brother was willing to give up his life for his own younger brothers.

This brings me directly back to who Tobirama tried to get back: it might have been Uchiha Izuna, and the goal might have been to bring proof of who Madara really was to his own brother, only for him to realize the problems behind the jutsu.

Which ironically established there may have also been a friendship between Tobirama and Izuna, that nobody knew about, which, yes, I know there’s going to be people shipping the two because of what I write here, but at the end of the day, Tobirama ended up having to kill the person who just may have been his best friend.

But what else might there be that was lied about?

Well, it doesn’t make sense that the brothers were the “first” to awaken the Mangkyo sharingan, and that was what resulted in them both becoming clan heads, but perhaps they weren’t both clan heads; maybe the younger brother was the clan head.

Yes, I know the narrative has Tobirama confirm what Madara is saying regarding certain things. Still, at the end of the day, Hashirama never went back on his promise, tried establishing peace that Madara tried actively tearing down, so why is it that Madara is considered at all a reliable narrator when he insist s that Hashirama changed, when he’s the one who went off the deep end simply because nobody wanted him to be he next Hokage?

It’s way too similar to how Kishimoto tried to explain Itachi’s involvement in the Uchiha clan massacre with Danzo.

It just doesn’t work and is a walking contradiction.

Chapter 6: The Good - Uchiha Clan (In General)

According to some in fandom, the killing of the Uchiha clan was justified, with some going so far as to say that Tobirama was right in saying the clan should be eliminated.

Which outright ignores, as I said in the previous chapter tht Tobirama honestly had nothing against the Uchiha clan, just Madara specifically, and that he didn’t trust people in general, which is why he established the police force and ironically placed the clan he’s supposed to supposidly hate in charge of it, which seems like placing a great deal of trust in a clan tht one is supposed to hate supposidly.

Kishimoto tries to establish this idea that the Uchiha feel intensely, excetera, excetera, which can mean feeling hate intensely, and love immensely, and—

In some ways, it is an attempt to justify the actions of two characters, Madara and Obito, while also explaining OoC behavior for two others, Itachi and Sasuke. Still, at the end of the day, it doesn’t work.

Because at the end of the day, being given the honor of being the village's police force isn’t a punishment but an honor, no matter how Kishimoto tries to spin it as being otherwise.

But the whole Uchiha mess started because—

Well, Kishimoto’s editors told him he needed to give Naruto an elder.

So Kishimoto created Sasuke, giving him the background of being he only survivor of his clan outside of his brother, whom he wants to kill.

Somewhere along the lines, Kishimoto realized he needed to establish reasons behind why the clan was killed off. Had he left things as simply Itachi being a narcissistic egotist who wants his younger brother to become strong so he has someone to flaunt his power against, things wouldn’t be a problem.

But—

Well, for starters, we actually got to see Itachi, past Itachi, and his actions towards Sasuke don’t add up to that, and instead add up to him being a loving and caring older brother, which means his killing his clan makes absolutely no sense at all.

This is where the idea that a faction of the Uchiha were rebelling because they were ostracized comes into play and—

Well, Itachi killing everybody is honestly overkill, and Hiruzen ordering it is overkill and out of character. This is when Danzo was invented and started showing up, when he should have logically appeared sooner.

To which—

Honestly, the easiest route would be to have Root kill the Uchiha clan and have them frame Itachi. However, no, Itachi still has to be involved in this weird double choice by Danzo, and his actions still don’t make sense, though the Uchiha clan being upset because they were ostracized due to the nine-tailed incident does.

But then Kishimoto decides to go all woobie and try to justify Madara and Obito in the same way he tried justifying Itachi and claim they are the Uchiha who were persecuted all along, which in turn is a direct contradiction to them being the established police force, so—

BANG!

There, you get this weird idea that Tobirama established the police force to keep the Uchiha clan under his thumb and ostracized because—

Uh, well—

I’m not sure how? I mean, sure, there’s going to be your civilians who dislike the fact they can’t get away with their drunk antics, but your average citizen is going to have a great deal of respect for the Uchiha clan.

You could establish maybe that Danzo was manipulating things and trying to ostracize them, but that doesn’t work for Madara, right?

So, you have this peculiar situation where Tobirama claims something that doesn’t match reality at all.

That’s Madara.

Obito is—

Well, there’s this idea that Obito was lonely like Naruto, because poor Obito’s clan was so mean!

Except they weren’t?

I mean, Naruto establishing that Obito was lonely like him means squat when Naruto’s loneliness amounts to, at the end of the day, not having parents, and maybe a few villagers who did find out his secret being afraid of him. At the same time, most of the dislike of him personally came from the fact that Naruto is a spoiled brat who runs around town pranking people and causing problems.

Of course, Obito is the black sheep—

Mistranslation.

No. Seriously.

It’s only in the subtitles for the Japanese Anime, while all others use “loser,” and “black sheep” isn’t a substitute for the “loser” synonym that all other translations, both Anime and Manga, use.

Because of the idea that Obito was picked on because he didn’t awaken his sharingan?

Uh, bull.

Sasuke makes clear this is rare even among the Uchiha, so Obito not waking it isn’t considered unusual. (Particularly something that Madara and his brother were the first in for a special kind it was so rare, though likely not.)

Which leaves the Obito clan expecting much of their members, which is based on—

Well, Sasuke’s experience with his father, the family head, which—

That doesn’t work either, because Sasuke is the child of the family head, while Obito is obviously not.

However, canon does establish the fact that there were not one, but two child geniuses in his clan, and with the fact that Obito is constantly comparing himself to the child genius Hatake Kakashi in his reference to being a loser—

Yeah. Obito was, at the end of the day, that the “new” babies in the clan, Shisui and Itachi, were drawing everyone's attention away from him, and he wasn’t happy that he wasn’t getting praised like the child geniuses were. Because—

Well, ITachi would have been four years old at the time of the attach, which is when Obito would hve been thirteen (he’s younger than Kakashi and Rin as his birthday is in January which is why his age was listed as thirten, as it wasn’t listing his age at the time of his death but at the time of the nine-tailed fox attack where Kakashi’s birthday would have come and he would have been fourteen.

He likely got hit by a rock shortly after becoming a Chunin, so at the age of eleven. Still, there’s so much that Itachi would have been two at the time and already drawing attention, like Kakashi did. Shisui was a couple of years older than Kakashi and likely drawing similar attention.

Which in turn those two would be drawing all the adult Uchiha’s attention away from Obito, whereas they likely paid him more attention prior to the babies being born because a.) he might have been the youngest unti lthey were born and/or b.) because he was an orphan, which is what Naruto’s comment about being lonely really establishes, tht Obito didn’t have parents.

Of course, Obito would also be ignoring that he’d likely have graduated around the time these two were born, which would mean, in the eyes of their society, he was an adult, so he wouldn’t be getting the attention he’d gotten before for yet another reason.

However, this also brings us back to Sasuke’s experience, in that Obito may be partly to blame for why Sasuke’s father is the way he is, because the clan had to deal with Obito. His death may have resulted in them concluding that they needed to be stricter with the children.

More importantly, the Uchiha clan as a whole isn’t the bad guys. They never were.

Well, outside that faction that wanted to have a coup and civil war, which—

That was problematic, given that Danzo is the reason behind all of that.

Chapter 7: The Bad - Uchiha Madara

Uchiha Madara, the grown ass adult who couldn’t be the next Hokage, proceeded to throw one of the most colossal tantrums in the entire series.

Because—

“I’m the strongest, so I should be Hokage!”

Right?

Screw what the people want, right?”

At the end of the day, Madara was like Danzo, believing nobody was trustworthy and that absolute control was needed over people’s lives.

This is a stark contrast to another character known to have trust issues, Senju Tobirama, who, instead of taking power away from regular citizens, established a police force, allowing the people their freedom. Yet, apparently, this was a form of subjugation, and it came from the person willing to put everyone in a perfect dream —a valid form of subjugation, with Tobirama being made in the narrative to agree that, yes, he was a horrible person.

Madara—

He apparently was the first to unleash a nine-tailed, because nobody had ever established a way to control them before that, because—

Because—

It makes total sense that these crazy beasts everyone feared were only subdued within the last one hundred years, despite being around for over a thousand years, and that there was never a way to control them before that.

Well, that releasing of the nine-tailed was because Madara had a tantrum over not being allowed to be the next Hokage, because the normal citizens of Konoha didn’t like him, and his entire clan didn’t want him, because SUBJUGATION! I mean, who wouldn’t want to be subjugated by their clan leader and controlled to the nth degree?

And then he dares to say, “Hey! I was right! Peace didn’t last!” despite the fact he’s the one going around in the background manipulating things n the background to further his end, but could he actually be directly to blame if his manipulations at the end of the day caused lack of resources for one country, or an incident another country wished to retaliate against.

If the events involving Rin are anything to go on, he was likely pulling strings in the same way Danzo was.

Though—

Madara stans like to point out that if you’re going to blame Madara for Rin’s death, you should really point the finger at the Kage for allowing her to be a child soldier in the first place, as if that changes the fact that Madara arranged for her to be turned into a jinchuriki and used as a bomb to try and destroy Konoha. However, his real hope was that Obito would become the one who would carry forth his will, as he was old, decrepit, and dying.

Like, let’s outright ignore the fact she was a child soldier here because had she not been a child soldier, what Madara did was still wrong. Still, Konoha is allowed to defend itself in war and even in times of peace. However, even if we were to consider her a child soldier, the Kage were still not wrong, as they didn’t understand the kind of damage this would do to children at the time.

Madara?

He knew what he was doing; he didn’t care, as long as he was in control over everyone and everything, hence why he wasn’t allowed to become Kage.

Chapter 8: The Bad - Shimaru Danzo

You’d think I wouldn’t have to cover Shimura Danzo in this, but at the end of the day—

Well, I’ve heard some say, “Danzo was right in wanting to eliminate the Uchiha clan.”

Except, no, he wasn’t?

I mean, a few bad apples?

Sasuke—

Well, I’ll get into his actual crimes towards the end, and he’s honestly a non-factor.

Technically, Itachi is as well, because at the end of the day, it should have been established as a frame job by one Danzo, with Itachi not having killed anybody. Still, his brother was a convenient witness to claim it.

That leaves Madara and Obito, who both wanted the rest of the clan gone, because the rest of the clan couldn’t understand their poor, poor feelings—

Oh. Wait. The coup!

You mean the coup that was the direct result of Danzo orchestrating their ostracization in the first place?

Danzo claims over and over again that what he does is for the good of the village, but at the end of the day, what he says is a lie. He does what he does because he craves power and wants to be in control, which means he doesn’t like the Uchiha clan because they’re in charge of the police force, the police force that Tobirama established, just like Tobirama picked Hiruzen over him to be the next Hokage.

So, then Kishimot decides to spread the ire and oppression all the way back to Tobirama’s time, which—

At the end of the day, the plot doesn’t make sense.

And we also learn Pain’s attack was his fault, as he’s the reason why one of the three Ame orphans ended up dead, but Danzo was the one who was like, “Hey, don’t bring Naruto here to fight and help save anybody! I want the village morale to prove Tsunade wrong all along so I can be the next Hokage, even if it means I’m a Hokage of nothing!”

Which, it really doesn’t make sense that he was able to talk everyone into letting him be the next Hokage after Tsunade went into a coma, which, replacing her that soon, and instead having a representative Hokage like Shikamaru is for Naruto in the Baruto series made more sense in Tsunade’s case than it does in Naruto’s case, but then—

Uh, Naruto needs to be Hokage, because that’s his life’s dream, and it doesn’t matter that he’s a horrible Hokage who can never get all the paperwork done and neglects his family, and not at all for the same reasons Rasa ended up failing his family.

The narrative tries too hard to make Danzo this guy who—

Well, people listen to? When it doesn’t logically make sense?

And the other two elders are like, at least in the Anime, upset tht he’s not being named sixth, despite everything he’s done, acting like he actually did quat for the village despite it never being etablished as being the case, which maybe is part of why sure fans don’t like those two elders, despite the fact they don’t seeme like the type to trust him, given he was absent from the elder’s council during the first half of the series, pre-timeskip.

Which, Hiruzen and they get a lot of flak from fandom for not reigning Danzo in, which—

That can be explained by not having the proof, because—

Well, one of the theories I came across in other stories is that Danzo may have orchestrated the leak of mission details regarding Hatake Sakumo’s mission, because Hatake Sakumo was in line to be the fourth Hokage, that maybe his suicide wasn’t even a suicide, but—

That honestly means Hiruzen didn’t have the power to stop Danzo, which was likely because Danzo had covered his tracks in the same way.

Oh.

To which, child soldiers.

Konoha was actively trying to move away from having child soldiers, of changing the rules and regulations for them, but Danzo wasn’t hesitating in breaking those rules, but something tells me he would likely have very much like to have gotten his hands on a particular child genius Hatake if he could, that maybe he even orchasatrated Kakashi graduating and becoming Chunin when he did, but if Sakumo died before Kakashi graduated—

Yeah.

Danzo isn’t a nice person at the end of the day. Not many people argue this.

Chapter 9: The Bad - Uchiha Obito

Poor, poor Obito.

Canon establishes that he was fighting against the system.

Rin was simply the last straw in the system, what made him finally break and try to reform things, albeit his way of doing it was wrong, right, right?

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

Let’s say, though, Rin was the breaking point where Obito couldn’t take the system any more. What then were the other points of contention Obito had with the shinobi system?

War, his stans will say, but that’s honestly vague at the end of the day, nor does it go into what Obito’s understanding of war was. In fact, one could argue that Obito was naive regarding the subject beyond the fact that wars create war heroes, and he really, really wanted to be a hero, just like he really, really wanted to be Hokage someday, because he really, really wanted to impress a certain girl.

In fact, his reaction to the White Fang being brought up is to instantly go to Kakashi’s father being a hero, which is also a rather odd response, given what Minato reveals, that White Fang ended up killing himself because the village vilified him, which means Obito was sheltered from that, never end up hearing an ill word regarding Kakashi’s father which in turn means there was some form of sheltering going on.

Chances are, the sheltering, even presenting to him this idea of the White Fang as a hero, likely came from Obito’s own clan. Still, there seemed to be some level of surprise from Minato, as if Minato was used to people talking badly about the White Fang, someone he definitely admired.

But to go from that to Rin being the breaking point? No. That doesn’t make sense.

Could it be getting smashed on a rock and left behind?

Well, no.

Obito went through therapy with such zeal that it wasn’t a problem; he didn’t think of it as unfair, so what does that leave?

Well, Kakashi and the Uchiha clan so—

Says the Obito-stans, “Kakashi was a bully, and so was his clan! That must explain why he went off the deep end!”

Except they weren’t.

At the end of the day, Kakashi reprimanding Obito for things that could get him killed in the field isn’t bullying, as already noted in the essay covering Kakashi. Still, the Uchiha clan didn’t do anything wrong, but as I was writing up the Uchiha clan, I came to a realization.

Obito started off being jealous of Kakashi, that when he entered the academy, he wasn’t the most amazing person in their class as a member of the super amazing Uchiha clan, but towards the end, around when Obito would have died (age eleven to thirteen), the clan would have gained their own baby geniuses in Shisui and Itachi at around the same time he would have graduated and finally been considered an “adult” by the clan.

Some point to Naruto and how Naruto noted they shared the same loneliness, but that means Obito was an orphan, because at the end of the day, Naruto wasn’t alone. He had individuals looking out for him, and people who were willing to be his friends, but the Manga does nothing to actually show him being persecuted by the village that couldn’t be explained by Naruto’s juvenile delinquent ways.

We also see the elders of Konoha liking this lovely, thoughtful young man who came and helped them out to the point they give Obito candy, so to say he was bullied in any shape or form—

That doesn’t work, and all we’re left with is Rin.

“But he wanted to become Hokage!” Some will argue as proof that he had an idea of what was going on, but wanting to become the Hokage, who at the academy is explained away simply as the strongest in the village (he’s actually one of the strongest, not the actual strongest). He didn’t understand what the job entailed, nor did he comprehend the troubles of the world.

This means that his conclusion that the world is absolute shit is entirely a matter of Rin dying, because Obito made his entire world about her and impressing her, without actually putting in the work, relying too much on eventually awakening the Sharingan rather than developing his own skills.

And even then, she liked Kakashi, not him.

But then, we get a flashback where Obito is trying to kiss her picture to the point of crossing out Kakashi’s face with tape on their team photo. It’s not as if there weren’t other photos of Rin, but it was the only one Obito had where she was smiling directly at the camera with that warm smile of hers, while the rest—

Uh, well—

The rest are, for the most part, pictures taken without the person knowing their picture is being taken, with one exception: Rin finds out and is looking at the camera in shock (in the Anime) or anger/irritation (in the Manga).

Obito’s feelings for Rin aren’t healthy at the end of the day, and it is his breaking point.

“But he said she wasn’t the reason!” I’ve heard others say.

Which, yes, true. At least he can admit that Rin isn’t the reason, rather than lying to himself and everybody that he’s creating the dream world to bring Rin back, and they can all be happy together.

No, at the end of the day, he did everything he did for himself. It wasn’t to “save” the world. Like Madra, he sought to control others, to create the ideal dream world, but if Obito had his actual dream world, Rin would be his. The fact that he was excited about alone time with Rin in the afterlife embodies the reason he acted out: to have that perfect dream.

And Rin’s death was like a switch.

Obito went from the kid who helped older people, to someone willing to destroy the entire village because—

Uh, well.

He sees Kakashi telling Rin about their sensei's pregnancy, walks over to the grave after Kakashi leaves, and vandalizes the flowers Kakashi had placed there. There are rumors that he has plans, but he doesn’t release the Nine-Tails until he sees Kakashi visiting Rin, leaving her flowers. He destroys those flowers, so at the end of the day, there is some level of animosity, even jealousy towards Kakashi, going on.

And in effect, he took from Kakashi what he knew was important to him, because he overheard Kakashi talking about it, about how the next generation wouldn’t have the woes they did, only to, in effect, be the reason a child like Naruto grew up without parents.

He then proceeds to kin-slay his entire clan.

Yes, I know the Anime filler shows Obito is always late, even to his graduation ceremony, but that doesn’t make him a loser of a Uchiha, particularly with the fact that the Uchiha are the police force. His efforts to help older people align with these actions.

But Obito wanted to go the route of the shinobi, a role his clan likely told him wasn’t his strong point, or he at some point gave up on trying to improve himself, believing that the sharingan would miraculously appear one day and solve all his woes.

Obito stans want there to be some other justification for Obito’s actions other than some girl who didn’t reciprocate his feelings. Still, at the end of the day, yes, it was the girl he crushed on dying that drove him into the madness of the two things I already mentioned, as well as the hunting of the Jinchuriki regardless of the cost, including the lives of the Jinchuriki.

All to have that perfect dream world.

I suppose what is even more shocking is that people claim there was nothing wrong with him wanting to subject people to a dream world and rob them of their free will, because he was ultimately aiming for a world of peace where nobody suffers.

And—

That’s a very childish view of the world, and part of Obito’s problem is the fact that he was sheltered growing up, because most people do, in fact, grow up and come to understand there are bad people in the world.

In fact, to me, what makes Obito an interesting character is that he didn’t grow up, and that’s where his character growth should be; however, he certainly needs a wake-up call. And he’s definitely not this poor, innocent Obito some of his stans like to make him out to be.