I wrote these years ago and never did anything with them so I'm posting them here:
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Man, I hate Danzo. Initially, I was willing to justify his actions as being for the greater good. Everything he did was purportedly for the sake of the village and to benefit the Hidden Leaf, despite committing some atrocious acts.
At first, I didn’t really hate the guy. I recall that right before his death at the hands of Sasuke, the anime tried to make us empathize with him by giving us his backstory. He had an inferiority complex due to his relationship with Hiruzen and personal beliefs that individuals should be strong and willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.
Then, the more I started to think about it, this guy has been responsible for 90% of the problems the Hidden Leaf has faced. He manipulated Hanzo and the Akatsuki into becoming enemies, leading to the creation of Pain and the villainous Akatsuki. During the Nine-Tails attack, he benched the Uchihas before blaming them for the attack and pushing them to the outskirts of the village. Additionally, during Pain’s invasion, he refused to get involved and even killed the messenger frog. This doesn’t include the other crimes he’s committed, such as kidnapping and brainwashing children, interfering in a peace treaty with Iwa, working with Orochimaru, blackmailing Kabuto, maiming Shisui, placing Mifune under genjutsu, and attempting to assassinate the Third Hokage.
The only thing I can truly argue for is the genocide of the Uchihas. Though Danzo orchestrated the attack, the Senju-Uchiha tensions were flaring up, leading to the Uchihas planning a coup. The flames of rebellion were being fanned. Danzo, being his power-hungry authoritarian self, urged the village elders to strike first and kill all the Uchihas. With Itachi in the middle, he was given a cruel choice: either kill all the Uchihas except for his brother, or let the village kill all the Uchihas. One thing I wanted to note is that Hiruzen wanted to resolve the issue peacefully and talk it through, considering the Uchihas to be allies. However, once again, Danzo went behind his back. Personally, I think Hiruzen should have put his foot down.
Now that I think about it, Shisui may have been able to prevent all of this if his eye hadn’t been stolen.
In short, Danzo's draconian beliefs and his desire to "protect" Konoha ended up causing more problems than they solved. The guy brainwashed his subordinates into total obedience (like Sai), corrupted Nagato, and created Pain by influencing Hanzo into betraying the Akatsuki members. He turned Kabuto against Konoha by having him kill his foster mother (despite his years of service) and was willing to let countless villagers die so he could blame Tsunade and usurp the position of Hokage. However, the most heinous crime was forcing Itachi to slaughter the entire clan and preventing Shisui from ending the conflict non-aggressively, all because he wanted the technique for himself. Honestly, Danzo’s death in the story was best for everyone.
August 2022
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I used to think that Rin’s death and Obito's role in causing the Fourth Great Ninja War wasn't solely about his crush on Rin. That was simply the tipping point. After her death, he lost his idealism. Combining that with the Uchiha Curse of Hatred, you get this. He wanted to fix the world so that no one could ever suffer or die in this Shinobi world. By enacting Infinite Tsukuyomi, he believed he could create a world where everyone could reach their dreams.
He cannot be considered "evil," or at least pure evil. Though not as noticeable as with Pain, everything he did was something he viewed as a necessary evil for the sake of peace.
With that said, Obito contradicted himself a lot and even admitted to it on several occasions. Rin's death broke his determination and made him a nihilist. Her death was the catalyst that caused him to turn to Madara and become a villain. He hates the Shinobi World that led to her death and went through with Project Infinite Tsukuyomi to avenge her in his own misguided way.
October 2022
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I just realized that Naruto wasn't at full power during his final fight with Sasuke. He still only had one half of Kurama, while Sasuke was siphoning chakra from the other tailed beasts. Not to mention that Sasuke was constantly interrupting Naruto’s attempts to use Shadow Clone Jutsu. I find this ironic, as he had previously called it “a sign of his weakness,” yet here, he acknowledges Naruto’s proficiency with it. No one wants to waste chakra fighting 2000 of the same guy. Sasuke was fighting to kill, while Naruto just wanted to bring his friend back.
October 2022
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