Can you expand on Tobirama being the worst hokage politically speaking?
Also, I agree with all of your hot takes lmao
Sure, let me explain what I mean.
Tobirama was undoubtedly very powerful, but he made several very bad decisions, some of which would have cataclysmic effects on the future. For instance, his decision to create the Edo Tensei jutsu:
Think about how different, and better the future would have been, had Tobirama not created that jutsu. Even Orochimaru, the jutsu’s most prominent user, acknowledges the fact that Tobirama should have never persevered with the idea of the jutsu, because he knows how badly the decision affected Konoha in the long run:
Without that jutsu, what would Orochimaru have done against Hiruzen? And how would Kabuto and Obito have fought the war? War is a fundamental part of politics, and future political conflicts could have very well been prevented had Tobirama not created this jutsu.
Not only that, but Orochimaru further highlights Tobirama’s political failings, how badly his decisions negatively affected the future generations of Konoha, and even Hashirama had to join in on the criticism of Tobirama for opting to go ahead with the creation of the Edo Tensei:
With regards to the policies that Orochimaru mentioned which ended up having disastrous affects for the later generations, a large part of this was down to Tobirama’s continued mistreatment of the Uchiha clan, which mostly stemmed from his persistent mistrust of them. He always harboured an innate sort of grudge against them due to the history they shared with his clan, the Senju, and this was evidenced by the very first comment he made to Orochimaru after finding out that Sasuke was an Uchiha:
He labelled Sasuke as “a scoundrel” before knowing the first thing about him, that was simply his innate and automatic opinion of him just because of his lineage.
After discovering what eventually came of the Uchiha with the massacre, Tobirama insinuated that he saw it coming because he noticed that many Uchiha clan members harboured a resentment towards the Konoha hierarchy:
However, Orochimaru knew better than that, and was aware of the true cause for their rebellious nature - It was Tobirama who drove them to it.
By giving the Uchiha the role of the Law Enforcement, Tobirama made them an easy scapegoat for a large proportion of civilian discontent, because as Orochimaru said, those who keep the peace are often viewed with vitriol. Furthermore, by giving them such a morbid building as a base of operations, situated in a location on the outskirts of the village, Tobirama severely ostracised the Uchiha clan:
This ostracism and the general disdain they felt from the regular citizens was what ultimately led to their decision to stage a coup, which in turn led to their massacre, and we all know the horrid effects the Uchiha massacre had. This all could have been avoided if Tobirama hadn’t been so mistrustful of them, and Hashirama explicitly warned him to not slight them because he knew that it was wrong to mistreat all of them just because of the personal feud they had with the clan leader. Tobirama tried to justify himself by claiming he just gave them an occupation he thought they excelled at:
However, you just know that his underlying distrust of the Uchiha was always the key factor in his decision making process, as he makes clear here how he was always influenced by Madara’s past actions. Not only that, but he claims that the entire clan is one “possessed by evil”, a comment which lead even Orochimaru to wonder how deeply Madara had scarred Tobirama, because it was clear that his mistakes in mistreating the Uchiha were always down to him:
So yeah, Tobirama was a powerful Hokage, and he chose a very worthy successor for the position. However, he was severely in need of a competent advisor to deter him from making such disastrous decisions. Someone like Shizune was to Tsunade, or Shikamaru is currently for Naruto. Unfortunately, Tobirama did not have this, and it showed with his colossal errors in judgement.
