[Submission] A Response to Itachi Character Question
Ok, this got longer than I thought, so I apologize for that in advance.
Starting from my personal opinion on his character (I will put two dashed lines in before the character explanation, so feel free to skip to that if this gets too frustrating to read).
Iāve recently reworked my view of Itachi, mostly thanks to your hatred of him, but while trying to keep the feeling of liking him (even from before his time revealed as a āgood guyā there were hints that heād been a good brother).
In the beginning we have Sasuke clearly remembering him fonder than heād like and rejecting it, even if the story never really went into it. And as a supervillain Sasuke was clearly important to Itachi. Sort of outside whatever his other plans were, however? He showed up apparently intending to follow Akatsukiās ideals, and derailed that a little to include his plans for Sasuke when he showed up. Kisame had no problem with it, so itās sort of implied that they, while not necessarily having talked about it, had an understanding about Itachi being able to do what he wanted when it relates to his clan. Though Kisame didnāt know Sasuke was alive, which means either no one ever told him and heās not good at recon (kind of debunked later) or Akatsuki actually doesnāt know that as a whole.
And Itachi clearly wanted Sasuke to hunt him down, rather than stay on the path to friendship he was on. Something that important to him is a sort of fondness, even if itās a really unhealthy sort of fondness. (I was also reading Count Cain at the time, so he fit really well into the ābad sorts of loveā theme of that manga.)
At the point he was revealed to be a āgood guyā Iād already stopped reading the story. I heard about him mostly because the Sasuke fangirls I knew had grown up (a little) and become Itachi and Orlando Bloom fangirls.
But in my mind it made a lot of sense because, from what little I understood, Itachi had an unhealthy dependence on very few people, one of whom was his brother, the other of whom was Shisui. His parents didnāt make this list, he loved them but in an less intense way, which meant to him that that didnāt feel as real. And when his last important person was threatened he reacted without really thinking about it. And then went on to join an organization dedicated to stopping people from getting into the same situation he was in through means not dissimilar to his own.
And by the time he was praised as a hero for-the-good-of-the-village I was already more or less blocked out of the fandom. So no idea how I would have felt about that.
So: Itachiās character as I see it. (And this is based on my own experience and conversations with my sister about differences in emotion and understanding emotions between us, etc)
Itachi is someone with very very high logical leanings. Heās so good at learning and processing new information that he usually gets a lesson the first time it appears to him. Not only that heās skilled at logical improvisation, connecting pieces of data provided to make an assumption to what the right answer would be before the teacher even comes up with this. (Please note that all terms are terms Iām making up on the fly to explain what I mean, they are in no way technical terms).
This is why he did so well in school, and later in ANBU. These are very carefully controlled environments. Information comes in very specific kinds and there is always a right answer, even if itās only the only the teacher/commander wants you to make. But like many easy-A students Itachi is terrible at common sense. He will tell you hundreds of unrelated bullet points and connect it into a treatise on the moral limits of the shinobi world, but when faced with whether or not to kill a child in a logic problem he will go through the shinobi checklist heās memorize and weigh that against whether or not leaving the child alive will cause problems in the future. Even if the child is begging for their life and the last person alive in the whole scenario heāll probably kill them off to be sure. Because thatās what the teachers have taught him to write!
Itāll be well defended, and he will make some mention after the first time about being conflicted because the first teacher asked him if he was in a way that clearly implied he should be. But itās logic, and calculation.
However, Itachi is also emotional to an extreme. Unfortunately heās so logical, so quick with his mind that heās able to detachedly analyze his own emotional state. But unable to do anything about it! I had this problem in middle school, where the logical part of my mind would confusedly watch a breakdown coming, know it was coming, and try to tell a teacher about it once or twice, and then the breakdown would happen and everyone would be confused why I didnāt just calm down if I knew it was coming. Itachi suffers from that sort of emotional stability.
Heās logical and as he gets older his emotions become more predictable, he can even use certain thought processes to trick himself into feeling certain strong emotions. Staying angry when he knows heās expected to be, for instance. Itās an interesting logic problem for him to experiment with, but it also gives him the illusion that heās in control of his own emotions. Heās 13 at most, for goodness sake, not even yet having trouble with hormones.
Iām not sure if youāve ever felt the difference between hot and cold anger, but I can switch between them sometimes, just by willing it. Cold anger is assumed to be more logical than hot, because it doesnāt burn out the ability to think, but itās just as illogical as hot anger, because I can remember that Iām being dumb, but not care enough to calm down. Iād rather stay angry at the person, cold and logically pissed off, rather than calm down. And while it might feel like Iām in control of my emotions, theyāre definitely controlling me at that point.
And Itachi has another problem. Heās the opposite of Kakashi. Kakashi is empathetic, and itās hurt him enough that he tries not to be. But he understands people, and connects with them, even sympathizes with enemies when forced into a situation where it comes up (Zabuza for instance). He loved his father and the village and couldnāt understand that people he loved could hate each other, so he blamed his father for doing something that made his life hard (and regretted it for years). He tried to close himself off but empathised in spite of himself and went to save Rin anyway and ended up missing Obito so badly, and Rin, and even though he was in ANBU he still empathized enough with Yamato to save him from Danzo. And heās friends with Guy because theyāre actually really similar people.
Itachi is the opposite. He canāt love groups of people. He honestly doesnāt understand what that feels like, how someone can love a concept. But he knows heās supposed to. Heās been told by his family that heās supposed to love the clan, and he thinks thatās what it means to admire what they stand for. He fakes it well enough that they praise him for his service to the clan, so he must be doing it right. And he ālovesā the village, because heās supposed to be loyal and dedicated, and he can follow that textbook perfect. But Itachi can only really love individuals, and only very few individuals at that. Heās an introvert who can make polite conversation with anyone who walks by, but isnāt comfortable doing so.
Heās really good at faking it though, so no one ever notices. Not unless he tells them outright, the way he told Shisui, the way he tried to explain it to his mother once. But only Shisui ever understood what he meant, even in part, so he doesnāt bother explaining it to anyone else. Instead heās convinced himself heās worked past it. He can work perfectly with others on ANBU missions, follow their rules exactly and predict them, and thatās what companionship and trust is, right?
Only Itachi doesnāt realize he only trusts people heās comfortable around. And heās only comfortable around two people in the whole village. His parents heās not comfortable with because they expect so much of him, and see him as so many different masks that he has to keep trying to keep up with or slowly try to wean them off of. His clan sees him as something he knows heās not, but he also is at the same time. His teachers think heās perfect so he tries to be perfect, but he doesnāt realize heās exhausted, that heās burning out, because he has to be perfect all the time, even though normal people have to take down time. And the village just expects him to keep saying no, heās ok, heās good.
And then unrest starts happening, and people start looking to Itachi like heās an adult, and asking him to make decisions without all the information. Asking him to write answers without telling him what the rest of the situation is. Should he side with his clan because heās supposed to do that, heās supposed to be loyal and love them, but heās also supposed to be loyal and love the village, but no one ever explained what to do when theyāre at odds. 13 year old Itachi is a teenager being given their own finances for the first time, moving out and being expected to know how to get up to work at the right time, and work the right job, and manage their budget, and find the right apartment, and decide to say no when theyāre asked to do an extra long shift for the 4th time in a row because they actually do need sleep. And he doesnāt know how to handle it, heās not mentally ready to handle it even, heās only 13.
And thereās only two people in the world he actually trusts, and he doesnāt know that either, doesnāt realize that heās calm around Shisui and Sasuke and nobody else, and that his emotions in relation to them ar so much worse.
So he kills his clan, and it feels bad, but not that much worse than killing people on orders any other time. At the time itās miserable, but heās been taught to compartmentalize his whole life and he does. And itās better afterwards, because thatās how compartmentalization works and not blaming himself for being the tool in the hands of others and all that. He doesnāt see anything wrong with the whole clan being murdered, but at the time he does agonize over if that was the right answer on the test, but heās not supposed to think about it too much after the fact so he lets it go.
Teenage Itachi is learning that things arenāt always right or wrong answers, that hundreds of thousands of variations exist, and he doesnāt like it. He realizes that even doing the right thing could get Sasuke killed, and Sasuke is one of the only things that makes him unable to think everything out clearly, because even when he tries to think everything out clearly he finds later that he missed certain things because he just couldnāt consider them in the throws of emotion. But he still thinks heās in control of his emotions, and he still follows orders really well, and can consider what Akatsuki wants and thinks itās a good idea.
And he still doesnāt care about anything. It feels less real now that he went so far for Sasuke, felt so badly about Shisuiās death. Konoha isnāt even really his problem anymore, since he isnāt supposed to belong to it anymore. He doesnāt think about it and therefore it isnāt a problem. Itachi isnāt loyal to the village because he never was. Heās not not loyal to it now though, because heās just as loyal as he was before he left, thinks about it less but in the same way when he does.
Itachi wants Sasuke to survive though, so he needs to inspire him to become strong, so heāll make himself a target, perfectly logical once he realizes heās a missing nin now, and Sasuke is supposed to care about the death of his clan, of their parents. (And he doesnāt realize itās so much worse for Sasuke, because Sasuke is like Kakashi, he cared, still cares. Itachi thinks he loved his clan, remember, so he thinks Sasuke feels about the clan the way he did. Doesnāt connect how Sasuke feels about the clan with what he feels about Sasuke.)
And when situations pop up like being revived from the dead he has a logical response, rather than an emotional one. Because heās not really worried Sasuke is going to die to him. He would just rather be dead than not, so heās going to fix it.
I feel like I rambled way more than I wanted too, and it might not even make any sense. But hopefully some of it is helpful?
Iām going to post this now before it gets any longer.
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