So, it's news to no one that the Sharingan is representative of trauma. That's a level one Naruto fact. But I think not enough fans really appreciate how that's represented through what the Sharingan actually can do. Between projecting hellish nightmares into someone's mind and perfectly recording whatever the Uchiha sees, letting them flawlessly replay it over and over again... its main abilities seem to stem from PTSD symptoms. That's the core of what the Sharingan is and why it's so tragic.
The thing that *I* think is really cool about the Sharingan is that it has two branching evolutions. The Mangekyou Sharingan and the Rinnegan. A lot of people seem to think that the Rinnegan evolves from the Mangekyou, but that isn't really true, it is connected to the basic Sharingan and that's because the Rinnegan and Mangekyou are two different methods of processing trauma. The Mangekyou Sharingan doubles down on trauma and makes it integral to one's character. The visions it can project are even worse, the user grows in power with every negative thought and the user will gain two abilities directly feeding from their own personal trauma. Obito and Sasuke have different Mangekyou Sharingan abilities because the way that their worlds were destroyed were completely different. Obito feels like a ghost floating through a fake world, while Sasuke believes that the world is very real. It just need to be burned down and reshaped from the cinders. The one ability shared between every Mangekyou Sharingan user is Susano'o. It isn't a coincidence that the Kanji for this technique breaks down into "He With The Ability to Help Through All Means". It's the Mangekyou user's best friend.
Their own chakra.
Formed from hate.
And it brings them immense pain.
It's an incredibly lonely ability, the end of wallowing in hate and being unable to heal from trauma. Pain and Blindness are the only things that awaits someone who awakens a Mangekyou Sharingan, it's one of the most bleak and cynical things in the series.
So, is the Rinnegan a better way to conquer trauma? Lol. Lmao. So, whereas the Mangekyou Sharingan seeks to exploit the user's own trauma for drive and power, the Rinnegan is the rejection of trauma and all worldly matters. The rejection of death, the rejection of humanity, the rejection of basic rules that govern our world. It is complete and utter detachment with the end goal of becoming God and just leaving it all behind. But... it's cope. Madara was the only human character to naturally possess two Rinnegan. Nagato tried to be a god, but couldn't succeed because the eyes weren't his. Obito tried to become a God, but always kept his Mangekyou Sharingan because he couldn't let go of his trauma, he didn't want to. As unhealthy as it was to cling to this, Madara's goal is even worse. Even Sasuke who gets a Rinnegan independent of Madara, notably only gets one because he doesn't want to sever his ties to the past and wants to remember his trauma, remember what he wants to preserve and why. Only Madara's insane ass is truly resolved to leave it all behind in the name of becoming a God.
