Entry tags:

itachi, naruto chapter

Hope Springs Eternal: A Manifesto for the 3-Dimensional Villain
Kishi, why you gotta play a girl like that? .___.

I'm happy and slightly embarrassed to admit that chapter 386 wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. Kishimoto did not completely change Itachi's character.

Nor did he make Itachi a one-dimensional villain. Quite the contrary.

Also, must totally pimp zapenstap's most recent essay on Itachi's development here.

SPOILERS FOR MOST RECENT NARUTO CHAPTER.





Masashi Kishimoto is at a crossroads. On the one hand, he can write Itachi as a tragic figure. On the other, he can write Itachi as a Dark Lord, a villain who has no motive outside of gaining more power for the sake of power. I'm not exactly sure how he'll maneuver, but I definitely know where I'd like it to go.

I'm not entirely sure why some Naruto fans desire Itachi to be nothing more than he seems on the surface. I'll never really understand the inclination. I find antagonists so much more interesting when they possess motives we can understand. Who of us identifies with the cackling villains of old who live only to take over the world? Very few, I'd wager. I never expected Itachi to be similar to that archetype.

Zabuza is the reason why.

I entrusted myself to Kishimoto because I fell in love with the Zabuza and Haku arc. Perhaps I judged poorly, but I doubt it.

Momochi Zabuza is not a hero by any means. The Demon of the Mist is better known as an S-ranked criminal, an assassin, wanted for such crimes as attempting to bring down a Kage in order to assume his place. We eventually come to learn that his criminality is likely due to his upbringing: Kirigakure was not a nice place. As part of the Academy graduation test, students were required to cut down their friends like weeds. (Zabuza went on to take down the entire graduating class.) Kishimoto did not mention this so we could excuse Zabuza of his later misdeeds. He mentioned it so we could get some perspective as to why someone like him exists.

Later, we come to learn that Zabuza is not the exception to the rule: most ninja of his generation were schooled during wartime. The philosophy was tough and uncompromising. It allowed little room for viewing humans as persons. But rather, people (ninja) were thought of as tools, weapons for the village's gain. Is it any wonder, then, that Zabuza insisted the boy with the bloodline limit he picked up along the road was nothing more than a useful tool for his own gain?



Oh, how he fooled himself. Human nature isn't that easy to overcome. Note the following exchange in the aptly-titled A Tool Called Shinobi.







As strong as Zabuza was, he could not escape his humanity. Would anyone call Momochi Zabuza "soft" for admitting that his bonds meant something to him? Would anyone go so far as to say his evil deeds lost their luster because he acknowledged that he was more than who he seemed on the surface?




Why should it be any different for Uchiha Itachi?

This was my thinking when I was introduced to the Uchiha brothers. It would be skillful for Kishimoto to set up the Mist arc to foreshadow later events. It is my opinion that the story of the Uchihas should rightly parallel this opening. I entrusted myself to Kishimoto, following his works loyally, because he demonstrated that he understood that villains were just humans in the end, not cardboard cutouts of evil. Zabuza acted monstrously not because of some character flaw, but because he was shaped in a society that attempted to turn humans into killing machines.

In essence, his villains had depth.

Instead of writing off these antagonists as an anomalies, we are forced to reflect deeply on how we ourselves help create the "monsters" we see amongst us.

This is why the story of Uchiha Itachi is more powerful when viewed as tragedy. He may have personal flaws, but in the end I think it would be folly to write him off as simply insane or sociopathic. His story could be a means of self-reflection, as so many other stories in Naruto have encouraged.

It is silly to say that Kishimoto is incapable of writing characters who blur the lines between good and evil simply because this is shounen manga. We've seen it in Zabuza. "Evil" people can act for the good sometimes ("evil" Zabuza taking out the "evil" mobsters was a "good" action.) "Evil" people can also feel unselfish emotions in direct opposition to their upbringing or personal philosophies (Zabuza's feelings for Haku.)

Should we be surprised if Uchiha Itachi does the same?

He and Zabuza both grew up during the same harsh wartime era that encouraged a ninja code that did not allow valuing others for who they were, but rather for what they could do. How much profit they could bring the village or the clan. How useful they could be.




The clan Uchiha, we know now from chapter 386, has a history no prettier than Kirigakure. The path to power lay not only in killing your best friend (as in the Academy graduation test in Kirigakure), but your brother as well.





Saying the clan was tainted because of their quest for power is incredibly interesting coming from one who professes to not be above and beyond this taint for his own gain.

Calling them wretched is even more so.

If Uchiha Itachi were a stock villain, you might guess that he would approve of his clan's power-hungry legacy. Why, then, is he so adamantly hateful toward them, just as he was when he was thirteen?

The desire for Sasuke's eyes seem to go above and beyond power for the sake of power. He claims to want to surpass Madara. Why? Is there a reason outside of the desire to become the most powerful? What is the point of becoming the most powerful if you have no one to use your power against? Madara used his power to first rule his clan, then Konoha. Itachi destroyed his clan and has forsaken Konoha.

What does he mean by saying he would be free of the clan's wretched destiny? If he is not free of it now, who or what is the yoke?




Honor. In such contrast to Itachi's talk of wretchedness and taint. Was he simply parroting the praises likely sung by the Uchiha clan themselves of their greatness? They were, after all, a highly respected, if not the most highly respected clan in the village. It would be no surprise if this came as a result of the clan wishing to create a lovely public image to make up for the taint of Madara, who betrayed the village. As the clan heir, you might expect these statements to be drilled into Itachi from a very young age. If he was to be a useful connection for the clan, he would have to be schooled to believe in their greatness.

Despite their history. Which was conveniently hidden away under the seventh tatami mat at the back of the Uchiha Nakano Temple. Which Itachi seemed to be aware of at that point. After all, it is clear that Itachi is highly suspicious of everything his father tells him that day. He seems to share the very same hostility during this outburst some time later.




Is it a coincidence that at that very moment Sasuke remembers Itachi mentioning the honor of the clan?

What is this hope he once held for the clan? Could the hope and honor be related?

Could he once have hoped to restore the honor of his clan?

How would he restore their honor? Is it at all related to his quest to reach the height of his capacity?

Why exactly does Uchiha Itachi want to become strong?






Hope and honor. Not the traits valued by a one-dimensional villain.

If this is the road Kishimoto will take in characterizing him, Itachi would still a villain. Are we to approve the slaughter of the mobsters at Zabuza's hands just because the mobsters have been identified as less-than-innocent? No, of course not. Just as we are not expected to approve Itachi's decision to murder the clan.

The key to a well-rounded antagonist is motive. Motives we can understand, maybe even sympathize with on some level.

We do not sympathize with a completely insane Itachi because we do not understand the reason why he acted as he did. If Kishimoto decides to go down the path of portraying Itachi as nothing more than a psychotic mastermind, then we will expect Sasuke to cut him down like a mad dog, and will feel nothing for him. This would be doing Itachi and ourselves a great disservice, I believe. Killing people "just because" does not allow us to sit back and examine the nature of our own humanity, nor does it allow us to reflect on the ways our own society may be responsible in creating people like Itachi or Zabuza. Making these villains possess some admirable traits can help us realize that maybe they are not so different from us. If we are not so different, then what, we should ask, went wrong with those boys?

The complex villain also allows for such delicious ironies as these: Itachi and Sasuke may both be convinced that they must kill the other in order for them to restore the honor of their clan. If that isn't epic storytelling, I don't know what is.