Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-30881771-20170718222407/@comment-734582-20170809075200

Ravenlot 27 wrote: However, it's really strange that Zetsu who were supposed to be the mere shells of former humans behave like that, I guess, the retcon with them as IT victims transformed into Kaguya's soldiers wasn't very correct, since their previous origin as imperfect Hashi's clones and such seemed a way more suitable for their nature and personalities. I don't think it's mutually exclusive. The Zetsu were meant to be blank slates, but there isn't really anything preventing them from forming new identities. Kaguya could've trained them to become obedient soldiers, while Madara didn't really do anything with them and so gave them the space needed to form their own ideas.

The White Zetsu are still made of Hashirama cells, even if they are IT victims. Madara's experimentation allows that to coexist. IE, he introduced Hashicells to the Statue and used it as a medium to form their new bodies. Considering the Zetsu have pretty weak hashi abilities, it's likely closer to a contamination. But their power allows them to adopt foreign chakra and so, by being contaminated with Hashicells, they can adopt Hashirama's mannerisms.