vivarium

my favorite tragic brainwashed un-brainwashed depressed questionable decision maker somewhat suicidal king ily

unfortunately, i have more thoughts

i always found it so interesting (and annoying) that the show portrays it so positively. like sure, itachi, let's try to use your dead friend's eye to control your little brother in order to protect the village that he has incredibly valid reasons to hate.

pretty much throughout naruto, the "will of fire" is portrayed as this brave, honorable notion that the "good" shinobi follow. basically, indoctrination to choose konoha over everything.

my favorite example being, hashirama telling madara that he'd kill his child if they turned against konoha.

well that sure doesn't fucked up

i've been trying to understand why hashirama came to that conclusion. perhaps it was simply how he grew up? hashirama and madara grew up in the time of the warring states, surrounded by child soldiers, their siblings dying, etc.

that being said, this was a time where immense loyalty to one's clan was necessary for survival. i do think it's understandable that the "will of fire" began as that - unquestioned loyalty to the nation, rather than one's clan.

that does not mean that that belief should have persisted throughout generations.

we have people like sakumo, who was literally ostracized for...not choosing to let his comrades die.

it's funny how kisame, who's flashbacks show him eliminating his comrades under the orders of yagura/obito are portrayed as oh, kisame is emotionless and horrible when konoha promotes literally the same thing.

we only don't view konoha the same way because we follow naruto & friends on their missions, and they have plot on their side.

not to mention how early the shinobi are driven to believe this, with itachi being the key example. when the hokage are reanimated, hashirama says that itachi was a greater shinobi than him, and hiruzen talks about how itachi was thinking like a hokage at the age of 7.

great...he was a greater shinobi than you because he *checks notes* was even more brainwashed?

itachi was basically fed propaganda his entire life, so that he was led to believe that his clan's legitimate grievances about their mistreatment were a threat to the village. the "will of fire" was literally used to coerce itachi into eliminating his own clan as a fucking 13 year old.

we actually see how much the ideology messed him up, with it taking him forever to finally accept sasuke's decisions.

i have no conclusion to this, i just really wish that someone said fuck no to the "will of fire" at some point in the manga.

legit didn't know their names before googling it during my rewatch but they're the two elders who along with danzo fucked up itachi's life

like sure, he returned to konoha because it was changing yada yada but ain't no way the two of them are still (apparently, i haven't seen boruto) walking free in boruto

it's way too late for this so i might be delusional rn but i was just thinking (i know, i should stop) that itachi's disease and hanahaki disease just have so much in common.

like hear me out, he WAS coughing up blood. like idk y'all what if we just didn't see the flower petals.

ok i get it - this isn't a parallel, this is just me making shit up.

but more seriously, the connotations DO make sense. as far as i'm aware, hanahaki can be both platonic and romantic.

so even speaking strictly canon and ignoring all the subtext, itachi did love sasuke, and was unable to let sasuke know that he loved him, hence, hanahaki. ig it is iffy in terms of the unrequited love but since sasuke was convinced he hated itachi, makes sense imo.

after Kabuto’s backstory i told my dad the only villain i hated completely and was glad had died was Orochimaru

I’ve been rewatching Naruto and have thoughts so hear me out😅

While he did eliminate his clan “for konoha” I think we have to ask, did he do it for Konoha or did he do it for Sasuke? If he stood with his clan, civil war would have broken out and Sasuke would have been in the cross fire

i think he makes it clear that Sasuke is his priority in the decisions he makes during the massacre and after: if Sasuke is harmed, he’ll betray konoha and leak their secrets to the rest of the shinobi world

would a shinobi who was fully loyal to konoha do that?

i get that his edo tensei version’s dialogue plays a huge role in his identity as loyal to konoha BUT itachi was trying to

convince Sasuke to not destroy konoha

was under Kotoamatsukami to “protect Konoha”

If Itachi had showed his issues with Konoha, even disregarding Kotoamatsukami, it would have only fueled Sasuke’s desire for revenge which Itachi wanted to halt to save Sasuke from himself

gege thank you! you've singlehandedly convinced me that aka's endings are peak!

First of all, what the fuck Gege. You cannot drop this and then go "thanks for reading for a year byeee". AGAGHGAHGAH

On an actual note though, I went back to reread the last few chapters of Mojuro to see whether there were hints towards exactly how Megumi died because yes, I know he was useless towards the end, still, he deserved redemption and a good ending.

My first question upon rereading was why did I torture myself like this? But afterwards, I realized that we (really me, but I like to think other people are as dumb as me) missed the main indicator that Megumi was dead during the events of Mojuro, and actually had been dead for some time, was when Yūka summoned Mahoraga in the fight vs. Dabura.

Firstly, if Megumi was alive, he'd have most likely been much stronger than Yūka and could have fought Dabura with Mahoraga.

Here, I'm making some assumptions because it was never explicitly stated in JJK or Mojuro that there can only be one wielder of the 10 Shadows Technique. On the contrary, since Ten Shadows Technique is inherited through bloodlines, there theoretically probably could be several wielders. IDK, but personally I like to think of Ten Shadows Technique similarly to the Six Eyes, and act like there can only be one wielder.

OK that was unnecessary rambling, but my point was that my interpretation is that Megumi died before Yuka was born, which is why she inherited the Ten Shadows Technique.

I was still keen on wasting time and not studying, so I continued to think. I know, why do I think. It just causes problems. Anyway, I was mainly thinking about Mahoraga at this point. Megumi (yes I know Gege doesn't care about him) was hyped up by Gojō to potentially be stronger than him. And that made me wonder, ok, if Megumi survived, he should have been able to tame Mahoraga right??? And lo behold, Mahoraga is still untamed.

That random thought really had no meaning until I reread the chapter (I forget which one) where Tsurugi talks about his dad (Iori, Yuta and Maki's son) "leaving" after Yuka was born could be a euphemism for he died before (or immediately after?) Yuka's birth.

OK at this point, I'm kinda jumping to conclusions and making assumptions bc I lowkey wanna write a fic about this, so lol yeah.

But, what I was thinking is MAYBE, just maybe, Iori was also a Ten Shadows Wielder. Yes, I know that's absolutely ridiculous but to me, I don't know, Megumi dying at a young age, probably soon after the end of JJK makes so much more sense than Megumi dying in his 60s.

Reading my own writing makes me go, holy shit that's a pathetic argument, but whatever. It's just, Megumi surviving for so long, and not really doing anything impactful, like taming Mahoraga or anything just feels very...oomph. I do think that if he managed to tame Mahoraga, there would have been a mention during conversations about Mahoraga, because it was pretty clearly stated in Mojuro that only Sukuna managed to defeat Mahoraga, meaning Megumi never tamed him. Like at least a single mention of something important he did to give him some redemption! And poor Megumi's only mention is a "I wish Fushiguro was still here".

I know there is an argument that Megumi could still be alive as the "was still here" doesn't confirm a death, but at this point, Gege just needs to let Megumi die, because if he was alive and let Yuka challenged Dabura...well, firstly it's very much not in character, but also that would just push the useless Megumi argument even more.

Anyway, poor Megumi. I complained a lot about him towards the end of JJK, but honestly, Gege clearly hates Megumi a lot more than he hates Yuji, and that's saying something.

I'm getting so off topic...back to my kinda weird interpretation, I keep thinking the only way for this to be better for Megumi is if he died soon after the events of JJK. I'm not sure how that could be, of course, there's possibilities because Megumi was (TW: Mental health, suicide) showing suicidal tendencies towards the end of JJK, especially while being used as Sukuna's vessel.

Personally, after all that he endured, I don't think it's that improbably that Megumi could have committed suicide soon after the events of JJK.

There also is the possibility that 5 Unlimited Voids, a ton of Black Flash from Gojō and Yūji, Jacob's Ladder, he genuinely was not physically OK and died soon after JJK. Although this could also I guess, validate the he died in his 60s because his lifespan was shortened theory, but (fine I'll admit it) I just don't like that theory lmao.

Anyway, I can't really think of a good resolution for him, I'm just interpreting this so that he looks less useless than if we assume he just lived his life doing nothing, so yeah.