Here are the images without text before I start yapping
So, I mentioned in my last post that Madara's soul was 'stitched' back to his body, which is a pretty... let's say, unconventional way to raise the dead, especially since one of his eye was already given back to Amaterasu. The eyes are more like a ticket than a true vessel for your soul, in this, but having one burnt still results in a situation where your spirit is one foot among the living and another with the dead. It's this odd situation that creates Madara's shattered identity. He is dead and alive at the same time, like a weird and tragic SchrΓΆdinger's cat (except quantum physics won't save his case here, sadly)
His sense of self is torn and incomplete, his memories, or at least, the few that remain, are blurry and lack details. That makes him react to familiar things or people with a visceral reaction, hence why he expresses joy and affection towards Hashirama for example.
But when it comes to his own reflection, it's like two things that shouldn't happen at the same time are happening regardless of logic, his mind and spirit can't accept it. It's the proof of his existence, and he knows deep within himself that it's wrong.
Madara's mind is fragile, but it 'resets' easily. Traumatic events are forgotten sometimes faster than Madara can react to them, if he starts remembering something too clearly, he breaks down and stops and goes back to normal.
He's like a weird zombie (Tobirama would have loved it)
Madara likes Sasuke because of two main reason. One the slight recognition of his brother's traits in him, and the second is the fact his chakra resembles Hikaku's. He'd also like Shisui a lot because of his blurry memory of Kagami (although bittersweet, he mostly has fond memories of Kagami)
The clothes he wears are his mother's old garment. If you have seen art of TaiyΕ I've made, you probably know that she's tallTM, that's why it's all slightly oversized. If I have to be honest, it's true that I drew him like that just because I thought it looked cool, yes, but I can still explain it with lore (do the design first, include storytelling elements then (I'm joking, don't do that))
See, Madara is literally a walking powerhouse with an almost non-existent sense of self, here, so, although he is mostly calm, if his emotion spike he just... well he just bursts into flames. Now that's not very practical, and like I said before, his memory is terrible at this point.
So TaiyΕ's clothes are very fitting in this context, fireproof fabric being the only way to not end up with Madara without any clothes and having to buy a ton of them in case he sets himself on fire. It was Hashirama's idea, but it's Nekobaa who provided.
She isn't happy at all with the situation, one she understands, but she can't do anything to put a stop to it with Hashirama around. Hashi is a bit unhinged about all of this...
I think I explained all of the details I had in mind... I'll come back to explain how he was revived but it'll take a bit more time. In the meanwhile, if there are parts of this that are still unclear or details u wanna know about, just ask me.
