Board Thread:Naruto Discussions/@comment-434627-20160705183726/@comment-734582-20180305215145

Starscream1998 wrote: Why would he lie to Konan i.e. someone who literally posed no threat to him and was about to die. Yeah not buying it, it's bad continuity on Kishimoto's part. He was trying to break her spirit by claiming the Rinnegan was it. After such a lie, wouldn't be much of a statement if he went "yea no Izanagi is a totally standard Uchiha power". He wanted to show he was the real deal, so he exaggerated Izanagi's requirements. If he explained it as a power of the Sage, then his claims to the Rinnegan would be more reasonable.

Not that it helped much in the end, since Konan's resolve wasn't broken, but he had no reason not to try.