This guy is inherently such a serious person. He’s sharp, incredibly intelligent and with years of experience under his belt. He’s a venerated legend and known to basically every ninja in the world. He’s a war vet. The list goes on.

Yet he chooses to present himself as non-threatening. He slouches, is chronically late, lets other people bully him into situations, reads Icha Icha in public and doesn’t fight too hard when his genin team drag him into antics.

After he drops the whole tough guy act with Team 7 early on in the series, he’s surprisingly patient and gentle with them. He answers their questions, calmly corrects them and rarely ever gets mad.

He’s a thousand percent a shambolic mess when he’s first introduced and yet he tries to get it together enough to support team 7. He tries to be there for them.

Without the context of his backstory, Kakashi is still a really compelling character. But when you put it all together, it really does feel quite miraculous that he can be such a loser adult. He didn’t let himself get hardened when it would’ve been so easy to do so. He remains gentle. And I really standby the fact that he is gentle and kind. Those are traits that really shine through to me.

sasuke overreacts to a mere mention of naruto by putting sai in a genjutsu. but what catches my attention the most is actually orochimaru and kabuto’s reactions before sasuke does it:

sai mentions naruto and that makes orochimaru smirk and kabuto look concerned, as if they already know what reaction to expect from sasuke when you bring naruto into the conversation.

an overreaction.

this is what orochimaru says after the genjutsu, that sai shouldn’t tease sasuke. but sai has only mentioned naruto and said he believed he would get along better with sasuke than naruto did, there was no tease in this, yet orochimaru frames as so… by the context, mentioning naruto is a well known way of teasing sasuke, both orochimaru and kabuto are aware of this to the point that they expect a reaction already.

I. childhood: awakening the sharingan

everyone knows that for madara, growing up in an era of constant death, hashirama became the first and only bright spot (except for izuna, obviously)

canonically, the sharingan awakens from intense emotional trauma. madara awakens his when his friendship with hashirama — the only person who understood him from their very first meeting — is officially declared impossible because of their last names

this is the first moment of his "broken heart." madara trusted hashirama with his vulnerability, and from that moment on, his psyche was locked onto this man

ll. the founding of konoha: the attempt to be number one

despite the massive pain of losing his brother, madara gave himself a chance to live "normally" and trust hashirama to fulfill their shared childhood dream

when konoha was built, madara hoped that he and hashirama would rule side by side, just as they had dreamed as kids. madara only recognized hashirama; after izuna's death, he became the only person close to him, his only priority. but hashirama still had tobirama and the entire village

when hashirama became hokage and started listening to tobirama and the villagers, madara realized he was just "one of many" in hashirama’s heart. hashirama loved the village more than his friend, and that was the beginning of the end

lll. leaving and loneliness: the life of a ghost obsessed with the past

madara gave up on having a personal life. while hashirama starts a family with mito, madara chooses to stay alone. he has no wife, no followers. all his connections are purely functional (like with obito later). he literally "preserved" himself in his feelings for hashirama because he realized he would never feel anything like that for anyone else again

when madara decides to leave konoha, a crucial dialogue happens. as he’s leaving, he tells hashirama directly: “only you can stop me.” this isn't just a threat. it’s a confession of deep intimacy. madara is literally saying: “neither the uchiha clan, nor the village, nor the whole world means anything to me. you are the only one whose opinion and whose power have any influence over me.”

his entire life in the cave was just studying hashirama's cells and having a never-ending internal dialogue with him. for him, there was no world where hashirama wasn't the center of the system

lV. the fourth shinobi world war: the peak of obsession

madara humiliates the five kage, saying they are nothing compared to hashirama (poor tsunade...). he literally "advertises" hashirama, basically saying, “listen, look how great he is, only he is worthy of me.”

decades after his death, madara acts like a man who came to a date, not a war

until hashirama showed up, madara fought the shinobi alliance with the face of someone doing boring homework. but as soon as he felt that chakra, he literally bloomed. his line “i've been waiting for you, hashirama!”is the peak of his multi-year fixation on one person

while stabbing sasuke with a sword, madara repeats from memory the exact words hashirama said to him before his "death": “i won't forgive anyone who threatens the village, be they a friend, sibling or even my own child” this confirms madara’s obsession — he literally kept hashirama’s words in his head for decades!

V. the infinite tsukuyomi: an attempt to prove a point or "notice me, hashirama!"

madara wanted to create a world without pain and sacrifice, where no one would have to feel what he felt. but on a deep psychological level, it was an attempt to prove to hashirama: “your village failed, my way is better.” it was a cry from a man who wanted the only person who mattered to finally admit he was right

when madara finds out he was deceived, his world crumbles. but he doesn't waste his last breaths cursing zetsu or kaguya. his final thoughts and words are addressed to hashirama. in anime he asks: "hashirama, where did i go wrong?" it’s not a question to fate; it’s a question to the only person whose approval he ever needed. even as he dies, he continues this dialogue that started at the river decades ago

as he dies, madara feels hashirama’s presence — the only person in the world who matters to him. madara admits defeat. he looks calm but deeply sad. he talks about his dreams "crumbing." hashirama calls him "comrade." until the very end, hashirama saw him as a "partner in a dream." madara, however, saw hashirama as the only reason that dream even made sense

the tragedy of madara is that he is an uchiha. for this clan, love is obsession, madness, and sacrifice. his biology forced him to feel an intensity of feelings for hashirama that the latter physically could not feel in return. for hashirama, it was a strong friendship, but for madara, it was an obsession

madara was ready to burn the world for hashirama

hashirama was able to stab madara in the back with a sword for the sake of peace

madara would never have done it first. he always chose hashirama. hashirama always chose the idea

madara uchiha is the greatest example of how you can be the strongest person in the world but remain absolutely powerless before someone who is just a "good guy."

of course, hashirama loved madara, but he loved him the same way he loved tobirama, konoha, and the world

the tragedy of madara is that he wanted to be exceptional to hashirama, but became only a part of his great legacy

Because Kakashi really is a distillation of everything wrong about the shinobi system. trained from birth as a ninja, expected to kill at the age of 5, his father, a legendary shinobi, suicide baited by the village he served his whole life for actually adhering to their village's supposed mantra.

Then Minato and Hiruzen, the two men he trusted most in his life(because really, who does he have left?) shove him into black ops where he can kill his emotions and fade from his identity as a human and turn into a tool for use. Used by his teacher, used by his village, even used as a tool for suicide by his last remaining friend. for decades on end.

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.